Fluoxetine to Reduce Intubation and Death After COVID19 Infection

This project will test the efficacy of fluoxetine to prevent serious consequences of COVID-19 infection, especially death. Becoming sick with COVID-19 virus or any other serious respiratory condition is not fun. However, the dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on human society stem from its significant mortality, not the number of individuals who become sick. This project aims to prevent serious outcomes such as hospitalization, respiratory failure and death during the time it takes to develop vaccinations and other strategies to prevent COVID-19 infectionPoor outcomes with COVID-19 infection such as hospitalization, respiratory failure, organ failure and death are associated with a dysfunctional exaggerated immune response, called a cytokine storm, that is triggered by Interleukin-6 expression (IL-6) and seems to occur around day 5 to 7 of symptoms. Fluoxetine has extraordinarily strong evidence in its action as a blocker of IL-6 and cytokine storms in both animal models of infection and in human illness such as rheumatoid arthritis and others. This action of fluoxetine is an entirely separate pathway than the serotonergic pathway that allows fluoxetine to act as an antidepressant. This pathway has been demonstrated in cell culture, in animal models, in human illness and by novel bioinformatics analyses of protein transcripts to be relatively unique for fluoxetine and appears to be a novel pathway. This project aims to inhibit the increase in IL-6 expression and thereby prevent the cytokine storm that causes poor outcomes. Patients who have tested positive or are presumptively positive for COVID-19 will be entered into the study and given the option to start the medication fluoxetine, which is demonstrated to prevent IL-6 surges in infectious and inflammatory conditions. Participants will be monitored daily for COVID-19 symptoms and weekly for side effects and tolerance of fluoxetine. A subset of patients will have blood drawn weekly and stored to monitor IL-6 and other cytokine levels at a later date.

This project aims to reduce the serious outcomes of COVID-19 infection by preventing or inhibiting the cytokine storm associated with organ failure, respiratory failure and death.