Anti-Cholesterol Drug May Reduce Risk Of Covid-19 Death, Reveals Study From University of California

Researchers have found that patients taking statin medications had a 41 per cent lower risk of in-hospital death from Covid-19.

Jammu: Primary health officials being escorted and facilitated by Indian Army jawans for door-to-door vaccination against Covid-19, in the remotest forward villages near LoC in Jammu. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: If you are fretting over the third wave of Covid-19 expected to make its appearance by end of August, and vaccination drive still going slow in many states, here is a new study! According to the new study, a common medication drug namely Statins used for lowering cholesterol, may prove to be life saving drug among patients with Covid-19.

The serach indicated that hospitalized coronavirus patient who consumed statins are much less likely to die from the illness.

What are findings about the drug?

In a new study from University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers have found that patients taking statin medications had a 41 per cent lower risk of in-hospital death from Covid-19. Statins is a medication used to control high cholesterol levels as it blocks liver enzymes that produce these waxy lipids.

 “When faced with this virus at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of speculation surrounding certain medications that affect the body’s ACE2 receptor, including statins, and whether they may influence COVID-19 risk,” says Lori Daniels, MD, lead study author and director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at UC San Diego Health. 

It is when researcher assumed that statins may inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection through their known anti-inflammatory effects and binding capabilities, which could potentially stop progression of the virus. The findings were applied on a group of 10,541 patients with Covid during a nine-month period between January and September 2020.

The findings have revealed that patients taking statins for medical reasons with a history of cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure have shown the greatest benefits of this unlikely Covid defense. If you by the current study then the use of either statins or other anti-hypertension medications have contributed to lowering the risk of death from Covid by 32 percent among patients with heart disease or hypertension.

Why did statins help Covid patients so much?

It is believed that the ACE2 receptor, which is seen as the main target of statin medications, plays a crucial role in this benefit. It was analysed last year that the SARS-CoV-2 virus seems to target this particular receptor when it attacks human lung cells. The new study finds statins and other hypertension drugs help to stabilize underlying diseases in the patients who take them. This observation makes it more likely that people during the current crisis recover from Covid-19.