A series of drugs – used in chemotherapy treatments, after a transplant, or in other infectious diseases – could reduce the chances of dying from COVID-19. A group of experts from the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) has drawn up a hierarchical list of drugs that include compounds that would reduce the cytokine storm, an immune system response that has been associated with severe cases of coronavirus infection.
To understand how these drugs protect, it is necessary to know that when an infection occurs in the body, the immune system reacts with an inflammatory response that aims to fight against pathogens. However, sometimes this inflammatory process is exaggerated, which can be counterproductive and even worsen the disease, or cause the death of the patient.
One of the ways in which this excess inflammatory response occurs is known as a cytokine storm. Now they have explained that the drugs on the list created by the members of the CNIO, and which have been published in a study in the journal Scientific Reports, could act beneficially by reducing the cytokine storm, which would minimize the risk of death.
Although respiratory failure associated with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is what causes the most deaths from COVID-19, evidence shows that lethality in a group of patients with severe disease is due to the late onset of a cytokine storm inflammatory, research shows.
Female hormones also reduce the cytokine storm
“The study predicts that glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone should be effective in combating mortality in patients, a comforting fact, since these drugs are, among others, those used in hospitals to combat death from COVID-19” , points out Óscar Fernández-Capetillo, head of the CNIO’s Genomic Instability Group.
Anti-inflammatories should be used in late and severe phases of COVID-19, because if they are taken early they can limit the effectiveness of the immune system
In addition, they found that inhibitors of the MEK protein, which are commonly used for oncology treatments, had strong anti-inflammatory power, a function that seemed to be unknown and that has been shown to be able to mitigate the cytokine storm.
Despite the results, the researchers have stressed that this type of anti-inflammatory therapy should be restricted to late and severe phases of COVID-19, because if these drugs are taken at the beginning of the disease they can limit the effectiveness of the immune system in fight against SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Finally, the authors have highlighted an interesting finding, which is that it appears that female hormones also help reduce the incidence of cytokine storm. This could explain why men have a worse prognosis for the disease. “Also, it would be consistent with the fact that the difference in mortality by sex is mitigated at advanced ages, when menopause already appears and estrogen levels decrease,” says Fernández-Capetillo.
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