Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report

Lithium has shown the capacity to: a) inhibit the replication of several types of viruses, some of which are similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, b) increase the immune response by reducing lymphopenia, and c) reduce inflammation by preventing or reducing the cytokine storm. In the present study, we hav...

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Autores principales: Spuch, Carlos, López-García, Marta, Rivera-Baltanás, Tania, Rodrígues-Amorím, Daniela, Olivares, José M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Pharmacology
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32973537
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.557629
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author Spuch, Carlos
López-García, Marta
Rivera-Baltanás, Tania
Rodrígues-Amorím, Daniela
Olivares, José M.
author_facet Spuch, Carlos
López-García, Marta
Rivera-Baltanás, Tania
Rodrígues-Amorím, Daniela
Olivares, José M.
author_sort Spuch, Carlos
collection PubMed
description Lithium has shown the capacity to: a) inhibit the replication of several types of viruses, some of which are similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, b) increase the immune response by reducing lymphopenia, and c) reduce inflammation by preventing or reducing the cytokine storm. In the present study, we have treated six patients with severe COVID-19 infection with lithium carbonate. We found that lithium carbonate significantly reduced plasma reactive C-Protein levels, increased lymphocyte numbers and decreased the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, improving both inflammatory activity and the immune response in these patients. We propose that lithium carbonate may deserve a place in the treatment against COVID-19.
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spelling pubmed-74814722020-09-23 Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report Spuch, Carlos López-García, Marta Rivera-Baltanás, Tania Rodrígues-Amorím, Daniela Olivares, José M. Front Pharmacol Pharmacology Lithium has shown the capacity to: a) inhibit the replication of several types of viruses, some of which are similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, b) increase the immune response by reducing lymphopenia, and c) reduce inflammation by preventing or reducing the cytokine storm. In the present study, we have treated six patients with severe COVID-19 infection with lithium carbonate. We found that lithium carbonate significantly reduced plasma reactive C-Protein levels, increased lymphocyte numbers and decreased the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, improving both inflammatory activity and the immune response in these patients. We propose that lithium carbonate may deserve a place in the treatment against COVID-19. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7481472/ /pubmed/32973537 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.557629 Text en Copyright © 2020 Spuch, López-García, Rivera-Baltanás, Rodrígues-Amorím and Olivares http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Pharmacology
Spuch, Carlos
López-García, Marta
Rivera-Baltanás, Tania
Rodrígues-Amorím, Daniela
Olivares, José M.
Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title_full Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title_fullStr Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title_full_unstemmed Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title_short Does Lithium Deserve a Place in the Treatment Against COVID-19? A Preliminary Observational Study in Six Patients, Case Report
title_sort does lithium deserve a place in the treatment against covid-19? a preliminary observational study in six patients, case report
topic Pharmacology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32973537
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.557629
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