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Coronavirus: smokers were previously at risk - researchers suspect that nicotine has a positive protective effect

2020-04-24T13:46:25.142Z


So far, smokers have been particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infection. Researchers may now have discovered that nicotine has a protective effect.   


So far, smokers have been particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infection. Researchers may now have discovered that nicotine has a protective effect.   

  • Corona researchers have observed startling disease history in some Covid-19 patients. 
  • The corona virus * attacks the airways massively. With a Covid-19 infection, smokers belong to the risk group *.
  • Scientists now suspect that nicotine could  possibly have a positive effect.
  • Here you can find current numbers of cases in Germany as a map *

Paris - French scientists suspect that nicotine  may have a protective effect against a coronavirus infection. The assumption is based on the low number of smokers among the Covid 19 patients . According to several studies, the rate worldwide is between 1.4 and 12.5 percent. 

In Paris's La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, the preventive and therapeutic effects of nicotine patches will soon be examined.

Coronavirus: Study with nicotine patches planned 

A new study from France provides a more precise picture: Of the 500 Covid-19 patients - including 350 people treated in hospital and 150 patients with an easier course of the disease - only five percent were smokers, explained the study leader and professor of internal medicine, Zahir Amoura , the AFP news agency. That is 80 percent fewer smokers among Covid patients than in the general population in the same age and gender cohort.

"The hypothesis is that nicotine adheres to cell receptors that are used by the corona virus and thus prevents the virus from attaching ," says Professor Jean-Pierre Changeux from the Pasteur Institute and the Collège de France. This means that the virus cannot penetrate the cells and spread in the organism.

Does nicotine block the path of the coronavirus? 

According to Professor Amoura, the study should use nicotine patches of different doses to investigate whether, for example, nurses can be given preventive protection with a plaster and whether patients can be treated with it. However, France's Minister of Health Olivier Véran has yet to give the green light for the study.

The fact that the cell receptor in question plays a role in the spread of the virus could also explain the variety of symptoms of Covid-19 , including odor loss and neurological disorders , according to researchers . However, people should not storm into the tobacco shop now, because smoking is a health hazard, warn the scientists.

Virologist Christian Drosten also commented on the loss of the sense of smell in the NDR podcast (April 22).

Afp / ml

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.

Scientists all over the world are researching: In China, there is now new knowledge about the infection pathways of Corona - Are air conditioning systems, for example, virus throwers?

List of rubric lists: © dpa / Jens Kalaene

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-04-24

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