Gaseous Nitric Oxide and Dinitrosyl Iron Complexes with Thiol-Containing Ligands as Potential Medicines that Can Relieve COVID-19

It is shown that the inhalation of gaseous nitric oxide (gNO) or sprayed aqueous solutions of binuclear dinitrosyl iron complexes with glutathione or N-acetyl-L-cysteine by animals or humans provokes no perceptible hypotensive effects. Potentially, these procedures may be useful in COVID-19 treatment. The NO level in complexes with hemoglobin in blood decreases as the gNO concentration in the gas flow produced by the Plazon system increases from 100 to 2100 ppm, so that at 2000 ppm more than one-half of the gas can be incorporated into dinitrosyl complexes formed in tissues of the lungs and respiratory tract. Thus, the effect of gNO inhalation may be similar to that observed after administration of solutions of dinitrosyl iron complexes, namely, to the presence of dinitrosyl iron complexes with thiol-containing ligands in lung and airway tissues. With regard to the hypothesis posited earlier that these complexes can suppress coronavirus replication as donors of nitrosonium cations (Biophysics 65, 818, 2020), it is not inconceivable that administration of gNO or chemically synthesized dinitrosyl iron complexes with thiol-containing ligands may help treat COVID-19. In tests on the authors of this paper as volunteers, the tolerance concentration of gNO inhaled within 15 min was approximately 2000 ppm. In tests on rats that inhaled sprayed aqueous solutions of dinitrosyl iron complexes, their tolerance dose was approximately 0.4 mmol/kg body weight.