EU: Coronavirus vaccine strategy for rollout is 'pathetic' says Kofod

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Millions of people around the world take statins. In fact, the British Heart Foundation says that statins are typically prescribed more than 70 million times a year. There have been whispers among the health and scientific field that statins could be effective in helping reduce serious fatalities and even death from COVID-19.

A growing amount of data shows that intense inflammation, blood clots, and stroke are some of the most severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Decades of research have also shown that aside from lowering cholesterol, statins decrease inflammation, reduce blood clots, and prevent damage to endothelial tissue which is the thin layer of cells that line blood vessels and other organs.

All of these benefits point to the potential efficacy statins may have with COVID-19 patients.

Researchers analysed 12 studies on statins effectiveness, which looked at 110,078 patients who died of coronavirus.

Interestingly, they found that giving statins to patients in hospital at the early stages of Covid infection cut the mortality rate by close to half.

Data to suggest that statins may reduce the severity of COVID-19 or prevent death from it are limited.

A study of 150 individuals in their 80s was published in MedRxiv and shows that those who took statins for cardiovascular disease before coming down with COVID-19 fared better than individuals of a similar age who were not on statins.

“We found a statistically significant association between statin intake and the absence of symptoms during COVID-19 infection, which remained statistically significant after adjusting for age, sex, functional status, diabetes mellitus and hypertension, noted the study.

It added: “The strength of this association was considerable and clinically important.”

In a study published in Nature Metabolism, the receptor for high-density lipoprotein B type 1 in facilitating COVID-19 entry was analysed.

The study noted: “Responsible for the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infects host cells through binding of the viral spike protein to the cell-surface receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

“Our findings reveal that B type 1 acts as a host factor that promotes SARS-CoV-2 entry and may help explain viral tropism, identify a possible molecular connection between COVID-19 and lipoprotein metabolism, and highlight B type 1 as a potential therapeutic target to interfere with SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

The study concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 S protein binds to cholesterol and HDL cholesterol and enhances the entry of SARS-CoV-2 through SARS-2-S1 protein pointing the potential efficacy of cholesterol drugs such as statins in being a possible treatment for COVID-19.

David Kaas from the John Hopkins School of Medicine said: “We have known for a long time that statins do more than lower cholesterol.

“It’s those other effects, the ones they weren’t designed to have but do have, that could affect the coronavirus.”

He added that there could be other reasons, such as overall health, lifestyle, or genetics, that could account for why participants on statins fared better after they became infected with SARS-CoV-2.

A previous study found that those with metabolic conditions including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who often have elevated cholesterol levels, and are more prone to severe COVID-19 infections.

The researchers found the novel coronavirus can stick to cholesterol molecules as they bind to their regular cell receptor known as B type 1.

This gives the virus a prime position to latch onto the pathogen so that its spike protein can bond with the ACE2 receptor allowing it to infect the cell.

Therefore, by taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins, high severity of infections or even death from COVID-19 could be reduced.

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