From the “things that make you go hmm..” files – in 2010 - Ralph Baric co-authored a paper that was the basis for the Zelenko protocol of Hydroxychloroquine + Zinc + Azithromycin

Ralph Baric is the person directly implicated in gain of function research that resulted in the SARS-COV2 virus that delivers the spike protein to organs in the body and causes C19 disease.

If you have an hour to spare, check out this podcast on America Out Loud:

The Global Economic Consequences of Pandemics (blubrry.com)

In it, there is a discussion of the usefulness of Zinc, quinine and green tea as a natural proxy for the Zelenko protocol, but at around the twenty minute mark, it also highlights this paper:

Zn(2+) inhibits coronavirus and arterivirus RNA polymerase activity in vitro and zinc ionophores block the replication of these viruses in cell culture - PubMed (nih.gov)

Published in 2010 with these authors:

Aartjan J W te Velthuis 1, Sjoerd H E van den Worm, Amy C Sims, Ralph S Baric, Eric J Snijder, Martijn J van Hemert

The podcast questions why the research was stopped instead of developed.

From the abstract:

“Increasing the intracellular Zn(2+) concentration with zinc-ionophores like pyrithione (PT) can efficiently impair the replication of a variety of RNA viruses, including poliovirus and influenza virus.”

Pyrithione is a typical ingredient of anti-dandruff shampoos.

There is the interesting part - Impair the replication of a variety of RNA viruses (like Ebola and Marburg), including polio and flu.

It goes on:

“In this study we demonstrate that the combination of Zn(2+) and PT at low concentrations (2 µM Zn(2+) and 2 µM PT) inhibits the replication of SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and equine arteritis virus (EAV) in cell culture.”

Hmmm.

It then goes on:

“By chelating Zn(2+) with MgEDTA, the inhibitory effect of the divalent cation could be reversed, which provides a novel experimental tool for in vitro studies of the molecular details of nidovirus replication and transcription.”

Why would you want to reverse the action? I am sure there is a good reason!

A few definitions:

RdRp = RNA dependent RNA polymerase. You will have seen the term polymerase used in RT-PCR testing - Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Polymerase is an enzyme which brings about the formation of a particular polymer, especially DNA or RNA.

"DNA polymerase is an enzyme explained here: DNA polymerase - Wikipedia “.. DNA polymerase "reads" the existing DNA strands to create two new strands that match the existing ones.”

Another paper published in March 2021 looked at the topic here:

RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibitors: The current landscape and repurposing for the COVID-19 pandemic - PubMed (nih.gov)

“RdRp is an important therapeutic target in RNA virus-caused diseases, including SARS-CoV-2.

In this review, we describe the promising RdRp inhibitors that have been launched or are currently in clinical studies for the treatment of RNA virus infections. S

structurally, nucleoside inhibitors (NIs) bind to the RdRp protein at the enzyme active site, and nonnucleoside inhibitors (NNIs) bind to the RdRp protein at allosteric sites. “

Nothing new under the sun, right?

Onwards!

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