- A new study suggests that statin intake may help reduce the risk of dying from severe COVID-19.
- In the study, people who regularly took statins before developing COVID-19 were approximately 50% less likely to die in hospital than people who did not.
- Statin use also appears to reduce patient levels of C-reactive proteins, a marker of inflammation.
- If further studies support these findings, it could provide a cost-effective, widely available, low-risk treatment option for COVID-19.
About 40 million people living in the United States take statins to lower their cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease.
But statins can also have a strong anti-inflammatory, blood-clotting and antiviral effect, all of which can help limit complications associated with severe COVID-19.
Therefore, researchers are trying to determine whether statin use affects COVID-19 outcomes.
In a new study, a group of researchers, including cardiologists caring for COVID-19 patients in New York, tried to compare the patient’s outcomes between people who used statins before hospitalization and those who did not.
“Our study is one of the larger studies confirming this hypothesis, and the data lays the foundation for future randomized clinical trials needed to confirm the benefit of statins in COVID-19,” said co-lead author of the study, Dr. . Aakriti Gupta, MD, a cardiologist at New York Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
If a successful clinical trial confirms the researchers’ findings, statins could be an inexpensive, relatively safe treatment option for COVID-19.
Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved only one drug for the treatment of COVID-19 – brake desivir (Veklury). However, some other medications may be beneficial during certain stages of the disease.
The study appears in Nature communication.
Statins are the most common type of remedy that people use to lower cholesterol levels.
According to the American Heart Association, they work predominantly by blocking a specific cholesterol-producing enzyme, which causes less cholesterol production and release.
But statins also seem to have a strong anti-inflammatory, clotting and antiviral effect. It can also help improve wound healing in organs such as the lungs.
Researchers have also investigated whether statins can help treat viral infections that can lead to serious complications, such as widespread inflammation, clotting, and associated cellular damage.
One of the most serious complications associated with COVID-19 and other respiratory infections is acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, research evaluating the impact of statin use on ARDS has not shown any large-scale benefits.
Despite this, a 2018 study found that statin use improved outcomes in people with a hyperinflammatory subtype ARDS.
A 2017 study found that people who take statins when admitted to the hospital for community-acquired pneumonia are less likely to die than people who do not.
Researchers are now trying to determine if statins can be useful in the context of COVID-19.
A 2020 study conducted in Singapore found that people who use statins are less likely to be admitted to the ICU than people who do not.
Additional research found that 47% were less likely to have COVID-19 people who started taking statins after being admitted to the hospital but who were not treated in the ICU.
U.S. researchers have also recently found that statin use before hospitalization can reduce the risk of developing severe COVID-19 by 50%.
The study also noted that people with COVID-19 who used statins before being admitted to the hospital had improved recovery times.
Scientists think this may be because statins not only reduce inflammation, the risk of blood clots and cellular damage, but also remove cholesterol from the outer membranes of the cells.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, binds and enters cells by attaching viral vein proteins to a cell’s angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptors.
These receptors sit in a lipid float, a part of the cell’s membrane that contains cholesterol, proteins such as ACE-2, and other fats and proteins.
And studies show that removing cholesterol from these lipid rafts means that coronaviruses can not even enter the cells.
In the new study, researchers compared the results in 648 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the hospital during the first 18 weeks of the pandemic, who typically used statins, and 648 patients who did not.
They also suit patients in each group to reduce major differences in demographics, other medication use, and conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19.
Based on their analysis, 14.8% of people taking statins die within the month after admission, in the study, compared to 26.5% of patients who did not use statins.
After the researchers took into account large differences between patients, they found that statin use reduced the risk of deaths within the hospital by about 50%.
People taking statins also have lower levels of compounds associated with inflammation, such as C-reactive proteins.
The present study represents one of the largest Western studies of its kind to indicate a positive association between COVID-19 survival and statin use.
But researchers need to confirm these findings with larger, randomized trials that reduce the risk of unexplained or unexplained factors. In the retrospective study, for example, it was unclear how long people who used statins used it or how strictly they took it.
“If proven beneficial in randomized clinical trials, statins could potentially be an inexpensive and effective therapeutic strategy for COVID-19,” said the study’s co-author, Dr. Mahesh V. Madhavan, MD, a cardiologist at New York Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Researchers will also need to determine whether the efficacy or usefulness of statins in COVID-19 treatment varies between populations and countries.
Currently, several randomized studies are underway to determine whether statin use may reduce the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19 and the risk of death in hospital patients.
One of the authors of the study, dr. Behnood Bikdeli, a fellow in vascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA., Is conducting a randomized trial to investigate the impact of statin use on COVID-19 ICU patients in Iran.
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the new coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.