© 2020 PFPC
COVID-19
Recently, dexamethasone, a fluorinated steroid about 30 times more as active as cortisione, was approved for treatment in COVID-19. Considering what is known about the pathophysiology of COVID-19, this could turn out to be disastrous decision, if not applied appropriately.
Theoharides TC, Conti P - "Dexamethasone for COVID-19? Not so fast" J Biol Regul Homeost Agents 34(3) (2020) doi: 10.23812/20-EDITORIAL_1-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32551464"Recent announcements indicated, without sharing any distinct published set of results, that the corticosteroid dexamethasone may reduce mortality of severe COVID-19 patients only...Dexamethasone would limit the production of and damaging effect of the cytokines, but will also inhibit the protective function of T cells and block B cells from making antibodies, potentially leading to increased plasma viral load that will persist after a patient survives SARS. Moreover, dexamethasone would block macrophages from clearing secondary, nosocomial, infections. Hence, dexamethasone may be useful for the short-term in severe, intubated, COVID-19 patients, but could be outright dangerous during recovery since the virus will not only persist, but the body will be prevented from generating protective antibodies." (Theoharides & Conti, 2020)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32551464/
Selvaraj V, Dapaah-Afriyie K, Finn A, Flanigan TP - "Short-Term Dexamethasone in Sars-CoV-2 Patients" R I Med J (2013) 103(6):39-43 (2020) PMID: 32570995.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32570995/
Malone R, Tomera KM, Egbujiobi L, Kittah JR - "Famotidine and Celecoxib COVID-19 Treatment Without and With Dexamethasone; Retrospective Comparison of Sequential Continuous Cohorts" (2021)
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-526394/v1
"The effects of added dexamethasone on laboratory biomarkers, and particularly on neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio raise concerns about the long-term effects of dexamethasone treatment with or without famcox during acute COVID-19 on the incidence and severity of chronic COVID (“long COVID” or PASC)."
Fluoride
Dexamethasone enhances fluoride effects on bone (Takada et al, 1996).
Takada J, Chevalley T, Baylink DJ, Lau KH. - "Dexamethasone enhances the osteogenic effects of fluoride in human TE85 osteosarcoma cells in vitro" Calcif Tissue Int. 1996 May;58(5):355-61. doi: 10.1007/BF02509385. PMID: 8661971.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8661971/
Inkielewicz-Stepniak I, Radomski MW, Wozniak M - "Fisetin prevents fluoride- and dexamethasone-induced oxidative damage in osteoblast and hippocampal cells" Food Chem Toxicol 50(3-4):583-9 (2012) doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2011.12.015. Epub 2011 Dec 17. PMID: 22198064.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22198064/
(Dexamethasone contains 4.84% fluorine per molecule).
Gq/11
Dexamethasone increases G q/11 expression (Cheung et al, 2002; Mitchell et al, 1997).
Cheung R, Mitchell J - “Mechanisms of regulation of G(11)alpha protein by dexamethasone in osteoblastic UMR 106-01 cells” Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 282(1):E24-30 (2002)
Mitchell J, Bansal A - "Dexamethasone increases G alpha q-11 expression and hormone-stimulated phospholipase C activity in UMR-106-01 cells" Am J Physiol 273(3 Pt 1):E528-35 (1997)
Wie J, Kim J, Ha K, Zhang YH, Jeon JH, So I - " Dexamethasone activates transient receptor potential canonical 4 (TRPC4) channels via Rasd1 small GTPase pathway" Pflugers Arch 467(10):2081-91. (2015) doi: 10.1007/s00424-014-1666-0. Epub 2014 Dec 14. PMID: 25502319
https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 014-1666-0
Thyroid
Maes M, Vandewoude M, Schotte C, Martin M, Blockx P - "Suppressive effects of dexamethasone on hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis function in depressed patients" J Affect Disord 20(1):55-61 (1990)
Fluorinated steroid analogues (dexamethasone) increase rT3 levels and reduce T3 and fT3 levels (Kjellman et al, 1993; Maes et al, 1990; Reinhardt et al, 1999) -> PFPC, 2003)