The Method and Results of a Treatment Targeting SARS-CoV-2-Activated Inflammasomes

Abstract In COVID-19 patients, clinicians should consider an increase in the oxygen requirement from 6 l/min to as high as 100% with a high-flow nasal cannula, as well as dapsone administration. A COVID-19 committee at Hunt Regional Medical Center reviewed the use of dapsone as an off-label medication in the first period. The hospital then revalidated its effectiveness by reporting the findings of 44 (22 cases/22 controls) patients with ARDS treated with dapsone in the second period. In ARDS-onset patients treated with dapsone, there was a decrease in FIO2 requirements in 7 patients and no worsening in 1 patient. In aggravated ARDS patients treated with dapsone, there was a decrease in FIO2 requirements in 6 patients and no worsening in 3 patients. In patients with severe ARDS treated with dapsone, no response to treatment was observed in 2 patients. In the ARDS-onset group not treated with dapsone, eight of twenty patients died, but in the ARDS-onset group treated with dapsone, no one of seventeen patients died throughout the entire study period. There was a significant difference in dapsone treatment results in the ARDS-onset group. We clinically diagnosed transient bulbar palsy of medulla oblongata in the brain associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the ARDS-onset group. We confirmed that dapsone clinically treated the onset of ARDS by targeting SARS-CoV-2-activated inflammasomes. Like chemically reacting substances, inflammasome and dapsone are competing, proving that it is only effective in treating early ARDS.