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Review
. 2021 Aug 23;11(8):864.
doi: 10.3390/life11080864.

Repurposing Colchicine in Treating Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Chi-Hone Lien  1 , Ming-Dar Lee  1 , Shun-Long Weng  1   2 , Chao-Hsu Lin  1   3 , Lawrence Yu-Min Liu  1   2 , Yu-Lin Tai  1 , Wei-Te Lei  1   4 , Jui-Ming Liu  5 , Ya-Ning Huang  6 , Hsin Chi  2   6 , Nan-Chang Chiu  2   6 , Chien-Yu Lin  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Repurposing Colchicine in Treating Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Chi-Hone Lien et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had caused huge health losses worldwide. Several drugs had been applied to treat patients with COVID-19, and repurposing colchicine had been proposed for its anti-inflammatory properties via several pathways. In this systematic review, we evaluated the effects of colchicine treatment. From inception to May 31, 2021, databases, including PubMed, EMbase, medRxiv, and Research Square were searched, and 11 studies were enrolled. A total of 17,205 COVID-19 patients with male predominance (62.9%) were analyzed. Patients with colchicine treatment had a significantly lower risk of mortality (odds ratio (OR): 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38-0.87, I2: 72%; p < 0.01) and a non-significantly lower rate of mechanical ventilation (OR: 0.67, 95%CI: 0.39-1.15). The side effects were mild and not significantly different (OR: 2.03, 95%CI: 0.51-8.09). Subgroup analysis with randomized controlled trials showed no statistically significant difference in the mortality (OR: 0.80, 95%CI: 0.44-1.46, I2: 33%; p = 0.22). In conclusion, our meta-analysis found that colchicine treatment was associated with a significantly lower risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19. However, this benefit was not observed in the subgroup analysis of randomized controlled trials. Further randomized controlled studies are required to confirm the potential benefits of colchicine treatment.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; colchicine; immunomodulation; novel coronavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of literature search and enrolled studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Quality and risk assessment of enrolled studies.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forrest plot of mortality in colchicine group and control group.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forrest plot of mortality with subgroup analysis for mortality rate in colchicine group and control group. (A) High mortality group; (B) low mortality group.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Forrest plot of mortality with subgroup analysis for randomized controlled trials in colchicine group and control group. (A) Randomized controlled trial; (B) observational cohort studies.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Forrest plot of risk for subsequent mechanical ventilation in colchicine group and control group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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