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

Abstract

Background Clinicians in critical care medicine considered dapsone administration to treat SARS-CoV-2 inflammasome. Dapsone is useful in the molecular regulation of Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3). Objective To study the targeting of NLRP3 itself or up-/downstream factors of the NLRP3 inflammasome by dapsone must be responsible for its observed preventive effects, functioning as a competitor. Methods This is case series with or without intervention; a cross-sectional study. We set out to use objective criteria of improvement, such as A. a reduction in the FIO2 requirement and B. a decrease in the progression of hypoxia. We treated the patients with standard COVID-19 ARDS treatment with dapsone 100 mg to target NLRP3 inflammasomes. Results The 22 cases were treated with standard COVID-19 therapy with dapsone (trial group), and the 22 cases were the control group. The comparison was made assuming that only decreased FIO2 was influential in the trial and control groups, which applied to only the ARDS onset stage. The chi-square statistic is 5.1836. The p-value is .02280. Fisher’s exact test statistic value is 0.0433. (The result is significant at p < .05) Furthermore, the ARDS-onset mortality rates were 0% (with dapsone) and 40% (without dapsone). Conclusion There was a significant difference in dapsone treatment results 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.