Studies show that gout pills may reduce the risk of Covid patients requiring hospital treatment by 25%

New studies have found that drugs used to treat gout may reduce the risk of Covid-19 patients who need hospital treatment.

Daily use of the anti-inflammatory treatment colchicine reduced the risk of hospital admission to patients with underlying coronavirus by 25%, a study of 4,000 subjects suggests.

The Canadian scientist behind the study said the results were “clinically compelling and should change clinical practice.” Times report.

Other experts called the results of this study promising, but said they needed to publish more details.

Martin Landray, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Oxford University, said the study was “really, really exciting.”

“My first reaction looks really interesting, if it’s realistic and clinically meaningful,” said Randley, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Only 30p of colchicine is also one of the drugs tested as part of the RECOVERY trial conducted by Oxford University.

RECOVERY is the world’s largest clinical trial of treatment for patients admitted with Covid-19.

Currently, there is no cure for Covid-19, but the study found that the steroid dexamethasone could reduce the risk of death in people with the most serious illnesses.

Recovery was also a study that found that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug advertised by Donald Trump, was ineffective in combating the coronavirus.

Dr. Jean Claude Tardiff, a professor of medicine at the University of Montreal, who led another Canadian colchicine study, said the findings met the criteria for statistical robustness and were submitted to the journal.

He added that he was ready to release more data if the journal’s editors allowed it, the Times reported.

A Canadian study also suggested that colchicine reduced the risk of death by 44% and halved the risk of patients requiring mechanical ventilation. However, these findings did not meet the levels required to be statistically significant. This is “because too few patients have reached these endpoints,” the Times said.

Patients involved in Dr. Tardiff’s study began taking colchicine in the form of pills for about a month shortly after a positive PCR test.

The patient was over 40 years old and had at least one underlying disorder such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Individuals over the age of 70 were able to participate with or without underlying illness.

The study examined patients in six countries: Canada, the United States, Brazil, Greece, Spain, and South Africa.

Colchicine can cause side effects such as diarrhea, and the study found that patients who received placebo reported more side effects than those who received the drug.

“Our study shows the effectiveness of colchicine treatment in preventing the’cytokine storm’phenomenon and reducing Covid-19-related complications,” said Dr. Tardif.

He added that the drug has the potential to “prevent Covid-19 complications in millions of patients.”

Other scientists have theorized that colchicine may be able to help coronavirus patients by limiting the overreaction of the immune system. And it contributes to serious cases.

“Colchicine is a very well-understood, inexpensive and widely available drug that makes it an attractive drug to evaluate in the RECOVERY trial,” said Peter Horby, a co-principal investigator at the RECOVERY trial at Oxford University. It was. November research list.

‘inflammation [caused by an overactive immune system] Is an important component of severe COVID-19 and can lead to lung damage, ventilator needs, and death.

“Colchicine has a wide range of anti-inflammatory properties and has been used for centuries to treat gout and more recently other inflammatory conditions.”

Professor Landray, another collaborative researcher at RECOVERY, said his trial took about four to six weeks before he could tell if colchicine had benefited the patients involved.

In the RECOVERY trial, approximately 2,500 patients admitted to Covid-19 in the United Kingdom were treated with the drug, compared to 2,500 untreated patients.

After the initial dose of 1,000 micrograms, follow 500 micrograms every 12 hours for 10 days. Researchers are primarily focused on seeing if gout treatment reduces the chance of death after 28 days.

If more data from the Canadian or RECOVERY trial confirm the efficacy of colchicine, it may be an important step in helping treat patients with coronavirus.

Last week, treatment by US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was found to be 80% effective in stopping infections in care facility residents.

However, Eli Lilly is more expensive and requires intravenous administration, making it more difficult to distribute than the cheaper colchicine offered in the form of pills.

The RECOVERY trial is ongoing in approximately 176 hospitals in the United Kingdom, and patient recovery is being compared to untreated patients.

Another treatment in the trial is tocilizumab.Recently Research We found that patients who received the drug were 87% more likely to improve their symptoms within 28 days than those who did not receive the drug.

Manufactured by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, tocilizumab is an anti-inflammatory drug commonly given to people with rheumatoid arthritis.

In patients with coronavirus, it works by blocking the potentially deadly “cytokine storm” (an overreaction of the immune system that causes inflammation).

It is hoped that colchicine will function in the same way, thus allowing people to recover from attacks of severe illness.

Other recovery goals are aspirin and convalescent plasma donated by recovered patients.

Results published in June Dexamethasone is a cheap steroid that has been around for decades and has been shown to reduce the number of patients requiring mechanical ventilation by 35%.

The findings at the time were welcomed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “the biggest breakthrough ever” in the fight against the pandemic.

Oxford scholars are also investigating the effectiveness of a treatment called REGN-COV2 created by American biotechnology company Regeneron.

This was the first tailor-made Covid-19 therapy to participate in a major trial and was used to treat Donald Trump.

REGN-COV2 is made using antibodies that are found in genetically engineered mice and in actual Covid-19 patients who have recovered from the disease, a disease-fighting substance naturally produced by the immune system.

Scientists hope that this treatment will give people the same ability to dodge illness as survivors.

Recovery was also essential to help understand which drugs could not fight Covid-19.

For example, similar to hydroxychloroquine, the HIV drug combination lopinavir-ritonavir was excluded as a potential treatment.