Aspirin could be key in helping Covid-19 patients recover
Aspirin could be key in helping Covid-19 patients recover
Sarah Knapton
Coronavirus patients in British hospitals will be given aspirin
in a new trial to find out whether the cheap drug could prevent deadly blood clotting in the
lungs.
Some studies have shown that nearly 80 per cent of people who
die of Covid-19 have thrombosis – or blood clotting – in the lungs, which
prevents oxygen from moving through the body and can be fatal.
It is thought the virus triggers a massive boost of cytokines, a
type of protein which signals to the liver that more clotting is needed,
causing the ‘sticky blood’.
Scientists are hopeful that blood thinners, like aspirin, may help avoid the
devastating clotting that can lead to death. If proven
effective, it would be the first over-the-counter drug shown to have an impact
on coronavirus.
Professor Peter Horby, of Oxford University and the chief
investigator of the recovery trial, which is looking at several drugs and
treatments, said aspirin had been added to their list this week.
Speaking at the Science and Technology Select Committee, Prof
Horby said: “This week in Recovery we’ve just added aspirin to the trial
because clotting seems to be a big problem.
“Aspirin is a very widely available, cheap drug, and if it were
to work, that would be a huge treatment boost. Anti-clotting drugs are an
area where we did have a gap.”
Research published late last month by the University of Maryland
in the US found that coronavirus patients who were taking a daily low-dose
aspirin to protect against cardiovascular disease had a significantly lower
risk of complications and death than those not on the drug.
Aspirin takers were less likely to be placed in the intensive
care unit or hooked up to a mechanical ventilator, and they were more
likely to survive the infection compared to hospitalised patients who were not
taking aspirin.
However, because the US is not conducting a trial into aspirin the
findings are only observational, and it is unknown whether giving aspirin more
widely would be beneficial.
Dr Jonathan Chow, assistant professor of anesthesiology, said: "If our
finding is confirmed, it would make aspirin the first widely available,
over-the-counter medication to reduce mortality in Covid-19 patients.”
As well as causing clotting in the lungs, Covid-19 infections
can also increase the risk of dangerous blood clots that can form in the heart,
lungs, blood vessels and other organs.
In rare cases, they can cause heart attacks, strokes and
multiple organ failure as well as death.
Prof Horby also told MPs that his team was hoping to report
results of trials into convalescent plasma within six to eight weeks. The
plasma is made from the blood of coronavirus survivors and contains powerful
antibodies which can fight the disease.
Britain is running the biggest convalescent plasma trial in the world
and has so far signed up 3,000 patients, half of whom will be given the
treatment, while the rest act as a control arm.
Prof Horby said it was crucial to carry out trials, rather than
just giving speculative drugs to patients.
“You can end up several months down the line with tens of
thousands of people having taken a drug and we still don’t know if it has
worked,” he said.
“We saw that in the 2009 [swine flu] pandemic, 40,000 people
were treated off label, and when we came out of that there was no new evidence
and no new drugs.
“In the US they have given tens of thousands of patients
convalescent plasma outside trials and if they had put them in a trial we would
know if it worked by now. We should have convalescent plasma results by the end
of the year.”
Prof Horby called on more patients to sign up for trials.
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