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. 2021 Dec;101(Pt A):108192.
doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2021.108192. Epub 2021 Sep 24.

The role of lovastatin in the attenuation of COVID-19

Sajad Karampoor  1 , Khashayar Hesamizadeh  2 , Zinat Shams  3 , Arefeh Ghafari Novin  4 , Mohammad Farahmand  5 , Hamid Zahednasab  6 , Rasoul Mirzaei  7 , Farhad Zamani  8 , Marzieh Hajibaba  8 , Behnaz Bouzari  9 , Azadeh Laali  10 , Alireza Tabibzadeh  11 , Mohammad Hadi Karbalaie Niya  8 , Hossein Keyvani  12
Affiliations

The role of lovastatin in the attenuation of COVID-19

Sajad Karampoor et al. Int Immunopharmacol. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

The mounting evidence regarding the pathogenesis of COVID-19 indicated that the cytokine storm has an axial role in the severity of this disease, which may lead to thrombotic complications, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and myocardial damage, among other consequences. It has recently been demonstrated that statins are known to have anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic, and immunomodulatory features; however, their advantage has not been evaluated in COVID-19. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of lovastatin in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with COVID-19. The case-control study consists of 284 ICU patients, which classified into three groups as follows: 1) the patients who no received lovastatin as a control (92 patients), 2) patients received 20 mg per day lovastatin (99 patients), and 3) patients received 40 mg per day lovastatin (93 patients). Each group's demographic and clinical parameters, along with CRP, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 levels, and mortality rate, were studied in three-time points. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between our study groups in terms of age and sex. (P > 0.05). Besides, in patients, receiving lovastatin the CRP, IL-6, IL-8 levels were significantly decreased from T1 to T3 than to the control group. Our results also showed that the use of lovastatin in COVID-19 patients significantly reduced the length of hospitalization in the ICU compared with the control group. In addition, our results showed that the mortality rate in patients receiving lovastatin was lower when compared to the control group; however, this difference was not statistically significant. Since the cytokine storm is a significant factor in the pathology of SARS-CoV-2, our findings highlighted the potential use of lovastatin to mitigate the inflammatory response induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; ICU; Inflammation; Lovastatin; SARS-CoV-2; Statin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The laboratory finding and dynamic changes in CRP, IL-6, and IL-8 levels in different study groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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