Drugs to cure avian influenza infection – multiple ways to prevent cell death

Yuan, S

There are about 4000 species of 'normal' mammals that synthesize VC, on average B50 mg/kg body weight daily or about 5 g/day (normalized to 70 kg for a human). 16, 17 This amount has been found to be essential for optimum health and resistance to many diseases. 13, 14 In summary, from a large number of studies, [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] we know that effective inhibition of viral replication and apparent symptom alleviation usually requires over 5 mM of VC (about 4.4 g for about 5 l of human blood). However, the general oral dosage of VC tablets is 100-300 mg daily, which is much lower than the dose required for influenza treatment. For higher absorption efficiency, and considering that over 1 g of VC by oral administration may cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and other side effects, [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] the injection approach could be adopted for those patients infected with avian influenza. In addition, longterm use of high-dose VC (42-3 g/day) causes scurvy after abrupt stopping. Thus, the VC injection should be reduced gradually during recovery but not stopped abruptly. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] When most patients were identified to be infected by AIV and have been sick for a couple of days, pulmonary symptoms started to develop. Their alveolar cells may be already damaged. Therefore, their risks to develop acute respiratory failure were very high. Timely pretreatment with VC before diagnosis in the hospital may be very important for the patient to avoid lethal inflammation. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]