METHYLENE BLUE

What is methylene blue?

Methylene blue might be known for its vibrant blue color in high school chemistry labs, but it is also a medicine with many different uses. It can improve the body’s ability to take up oxygen and liver function, and it can also improve blood pressure and cardiac function in septic shock [^[1]].

What does methylene blue do in the body?

Though methylene blue started as a textile dye, it has also been used for over a century as a medicinal compound. Methylene blue is low-cost and safe at low dosages [^[2]]. Used to treat COVID-19, methylene blue can interact with the virus itself, blocking the viral replication process. Methylene in methylene blue can also interfere with pro-inflammatory cells and prevent the cytokine storm, which results from immune overreactivity, in the lungs [^[3]]. Methylene blue is also a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, which slows COVID-19 disease progression and increases oxygen saturation, improving COVID-19 outcomes [^[4]].

How can methylene blue help alleviate certain Long COVID symptoms and pathophysiology? 

Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a significant role in neurodegenerative disorders that involve inflammation and brain cell death. These disorders involve oxidative stress that contributes to inflammation of the endothelial tissues and disturbed metabolism, resulting from insult to the brain’s mitochondrial processes. Methylene blue protects mitochondria, whether in the context of stroke, neurodegeneration, or chemotherapy-induced neural injury. Therefore, methylene blue has attracted interest in reducing the cognitive and functional impairments in Long COVID. In a recent study, patients undergoing major surgery experienced a reduction in postoperative cognitive dysfunction when taking methylene blue, as opposed to controls [^[5]]. These effects make methylene blue a promising therapeutic tool for improving cognition and brain metabolism processes in Long COVID and reducing inflammation, which is a feature of Long COVID