Food rich in anti-oxidants helps in recovery

Vitamin C won’t cure corona infection

Repurposed drugs will have to do now

Use synthetic cloth mask instead of cotton

Structure of virus crucial

We will have a vaccine next year

Why valproic acid is important

Fake news has been spreading as much as the novel coronavirus. Among them are messages on social media that say 5G network spreads Covid-19, hand dryers can kill the virus and that taking hot baths can protect you. Experts kill the myth at a webinar organised by Bennett University on Thursday.Gut microbiome can help Covid-19 patients recover, said Dr Shriram Raghavan, senior vice-president, Jananom Pvt Ltd. Taking food rich in anti-oxidants can keep the gut microbiome diverse and strong and provide us immunity. Dr Raghavan highlighted that while Tamil Nadu stands third in the number of cases, it had fewer deaths. “This is because patients are given a well-structured diet rich in local produce, spices, turmeric and tamarind,” said Dr Raghavan. These are rich in anti-oxidants that can mop up inflammation-causing free radicals released in the body by the virus.Dr Suravi Chatterjee-Woolman, surgical resident with the UK’s NHS, said not myths, but hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing can keep the virus at bay. “Many think Vitamin C can cure you of the infection. This is not true. Taking Vitamin C in low doses (200mg) for a long duration can reduce the number of days you remain sick with common cold. Vitamin C is not a treatment for Covid-19,” she said. “The virus is transmitted from an infected person to another through close contact, and it does not travel through 5G network.”Prof Thomas Tomasiak, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Arizona, said with the help of new technology, there is hope that solutions will be found soon. “Glycosylations, that is decoration of sugars on proteins, makes the antibody production very difficult, something like HIV… Multiple ideas have to be tried as we are not clear which drugs or vaccines will be the best. At this time, repurposed drugs might provide short-term solution till a vaccine is ready.”Dr Arunansu Talukdar, professor, general medicine, Medical College, Kolkata, pointed out that the new cases being reported are of people infected before the lockdown; the effects of the lockdown will be known after a few weeks. “Using ACs is not good in this pandemic. Virus can stay longer in conditioned air. It’s important to keep rooms wellventilated. Avoid wearing belts and watches while working so that there are fewer surfaces to which the virus can attach,” he said. “The #MaskIndia movement is important and we all need to be part of it. But instead of cotton, use synthetic material as static electricity from it can provide better protection.”Prof Robert Stroud of the University of California, San Francisco , said it is important to know the structure of the coronavirus and the spikes of glycoprotein. “These spikes help the virus attach to host cell receptors. Based on the structure, we can determine what kind of molecules can bind to these proteins.” The number of people getting infected is way higher than that by SARS and MERS. Having studied the structure of the RNA virus, we can design drugs, he said.Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute India, Pune, said his institute would be ready with a Covid-19 vaccine by 2021. Till then, we may have to build herd immunity, he said. “Lockdown is not the only way to deal with this pandemic. We need to eventually go out. Cases will come up and we will build herd immunity, and by then a vaccine will also be ready,” he said. No matter who makes the vaccine, it will need multiple partners to manufacture billions of doses, he said.Dr Neel Bhavesh , group leader, transcriptional regulation at International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, said his centre has done a genomic sequence of the virus. “There are several structural and nonstructural proteins that can be targeted for therapeutic purpose,” he said. Valproic acid CoA can act as the best lead molecule as it can be repurposed and inhibits viral replication and also breaks virus-human interaction. Valproic acid is used for common ailments like migraine, he said.