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SAN DIEGO, Calif .– Statins, a common cholesterol lowering drug, could save lives in patients with COVID-19. A new study finds that hospitalized coronavirus patients who take statins are much less likely to die from the disease.
Statins generally help people lower high cholesterol levels by blocking liver enzymes that produce these waxy lipids. Researchers note that statins are one of the most common medications taken by people with high cholesterol, with around 93% of all patients trying to lower their cholesterol by taking statins.
The new report finds that of more than 10,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19, statins reduced the risk of death in hospital by 41%.
“Faced with this virus at the start of the pandemic, there was a lot of speculation about certain drugs that affect the body’s ACE2 receptor, including statins, and whether they can influence the risk of COVID-19,” explains Lori Daniels , MD, lead study author and director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at UC San Diego Health, in an academic publication. “At the time, we believed that statins could inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection through their known anti-inflammatory effects and binding abilities, which could potentially stop the progression of the virus. “
Common drugs can help beat the pandemic
The researchers applied their original statin findings to a group of 10,541 COVID patients over a nine-month period between January and September 2020.
“From this data, we performed more advanced analyzes as we attempted to control for coexisting medical conditions, socioeconomic status and hospital factors,” Daniels reports. “In doing so, we confirmed our previous findings that statins are associated with a reduced risk of death from COVID-19 in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. “
The results show that patients taking statins for medical reasons, such as a history of cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure, see the greatest benefits from this unlikely COVID defense. Additionally, the study authors report that using statins or other anti-hypertension medications helps reduce the risk of death from COVID by 32% in patients with heart disease or high blood pressure.
The UC San Diego team also compared their results to those of other coronavirus patients who did not take these drugs.
“We matched each patient with one or more similar patients, using hospital site, month of admission, age, race, ethnicity, gender, and a list of pre-existing conditions, in order to to make the two groups as comparable as possible, ”explains Karen Messer, PhD, professor of biostatistics at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Why are statins helping COVID patients so much?
Researchers believe that the ACE2 receptor, the primary target of statins, plays a major role in this benefit. Scientists discovered last year that the SARS-CoV-2 virus also targets this receptor when it attacks human lung cells. The new study finds that statins and other blood pressure medications help stabilize underlying illnesses in patients who take them. According to researchers, this makes it more likely that people during the current crisis will recover from COVID-19.
“As with any observational study, we cannot say with certainty that the associations we describe between statin use and reduced severity of COVID-19 infection are certainly due to the statins themselves; However, we can now say with very strong evidence that they can play a role in substantially reducing a patient’s risk of death from COVID-19, ”Daniels concludes. “We hope that the results of our research will encourage patients to continue their medication. “
The study appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
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