Drugs used to treat cancer may help reduce the severity of Covid-19 in patients: a study

Washington: Scientists medicine Several blood cancer treatments have already been approved and are associated with reduced dyspnea and reduced hyperactive immune response in Covid-19 patients, potentially leading to potential novel therapies. Coronavirus infection.
According to researchers, including researchers at the National Cancer Institute in the United States, the cancer drug Akaraburtinib blocks protein Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) in Covid-19 patients, providing clinical benefit to a small group of them It was.
of InvestigationPublished in Science Immunology, findings should not be considered clinical advice and were randomized and controlled Clinical trial..
According to BTK protein scientistPlays an important role in the immune system, including macrophages, which are immune cells that can cause inflammation by producing proteins known as cytokines.
According to the researchers, these proteins act as chemical messengers that help stimulate and direct the immune response.
In some patients with severe Covid-19, studies have shown that large amounts of cytokines are released into the body at once, causing the immune system to damage the function of organs such as the lungs. This process is known as the “cytokine storm.” ”
The current study included 19 patients with confirmed Covid-19 diagnoses requiring hospitalization, as well as evidence of low blood oxygen levels and inflammation.
According to scientists, 11 of the 19 patients received supplemental oxygen for a median of 2 days, and the remaining 8 had ventilator use for a median of 1.5 days.
The study showed that within a few days of starting treatment with cancer drugs, the majority of patients in the supplemental oxygen group had significantly reduced inflammation and improved breathing.
Eight of the 11 patients were able to quit oxygen and were discharged from the hospital, he said.
Although the benefits of acalabrutinib have been reported to be less dramatic in ventilated patients, scientists have found that 4 out of 8 patients fail to ventilate I was discharged from the hospital.
According to scientists, the ventilator patient group was very clinically diverse, including those who had long-term use of the ventilator and had major organ dysfunction.
They said two patients in this group died.
Analysis of patient blood samples revealed that levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a key cytokine associated with severe Covid-19 hyperinflammation, were reduced after treatment with acalabrutinib ..
Scientists said lymphocyte counts, the types of immune cells associated with worse outcomes in Covid-19 patients, improved rapidly in most patients.
The researchers tested blood cells from severe Covid-19 patients who did not participate in the study and compared it to a sample of healthy volunteers, which showed that the activity of BTK protein in severe Covid-19 patients was high. It turns out that there is a large amount of production of IL-6.
Based on these findings, they suggested that akaraburtinib might have been effective because its target, BTK, is hyperactive in severe Covid-19 immune cells.
However, in a note, scientists also found in the study that the most common adverse events associated with long-term alaburtinib treatment included “mild headache, diarrhea, fever, and upper respiratory tract infections.” Said.
They stated that the safety profile of alacartinib in severe Covid-19 patients needs to be confirmed in a prospective clinical trial.
“More correlation studies will be needed to understand the basis of response or resistance to BTK inhibition in patients with such advanced disease,” the scientist wrote in a study.