ST.LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI — “The antidepressant fluvoxamine, sold under the brand name Luvox, could reduce risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms by almost a third in high risk patients, according to a new study in The Lancet Global Health journal which gave around 1,500 volunteers with COVID-19 100 milligrams of the drug twice a day for 10 days.
According to one study author cited by CNN, the drug targets two dangerous immune responses prompted by COVID-19 infections: the production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines and the production of blood platelets, both of which account for some of the most serious COVID symptoms.
Cytokines are small proteins produced by the body’s immune cells after coronavirus infects the lungs, according to pharmaceutical company Incyte. They bind to receptors
on cells, signalling for those cells to adjust how they grow or behave in order to direct an immune response against a pathogen, including causing inflammation.
The problem cytokines can cause is that as part of an immune response they attract additional immune cells, which in turn produce additional cytokines.
If too many cytokines are produced, they can overwhelm the body and create what is known as a ‘cytokine storm,’ according to Live Science.
Cytokine storms in COVID infections can cause excessive inflation which damages lung cells, scar tissue can form that prevents oxygen from passing into the bloodstream, and weakened blood vessels can allow fluid to fill up lung cavities, which causes respiratory failure.
Fluvoxamine may reduce this production of cytokines, according one of the professors from The Lancet study, cited by CNN, and it may also reduce levels of blood platelets.
Blood platelets circulate within our blood, binding together when they recognize damaged blood vessels, and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says COVID-19 infections make them more prone to forming potentially deadly blood clots.
In the Lancet study, 741 volunteers with COVID-19 received fluvoxamine, while 756 volunteers got a placebo. Just 11 percent of those given fluvoxamine needed hospital treatment, versus almost 16 percent given placebos.
According to one study author cited by CNN, the drug targets two dangerous immune responses prompted by COVID-19 infections: the production of inflammatory molecules called cytokines and the production of blood platelets, both of which account for some of the most serious COVID symptoms.
Cytokines are small proteins produced by the body’s immune cells after coronavirus infects the lungs, according to pharmaceutical company Incyte. They bind to receptors
on cells, signalling for those cells to adjust how they grow or behave in order to direct an immune response against a pathogen, including causing inflammation.
The problem cytokines can cause is that as part of an immune response they attract additional immune cells, which in turn produce additional cytokines.
If too many cytokines are produced, they can overwhelm the body and create what is known as a ‘cytokine storm,’ according to Live Science.
Cytokine storms in COVID infections can cause excessive inflation which damages lung cells, scar tissue can form that prevents oxygen from passing into the bloodstream, and weakened blood vessels can allow fluid to fill up lung cavities, which causes respiratory failure.
Fluvoxamine may reduce this production of cytokines, according one of the professors from The Lancet study, cited by CNN, and it may also reduce levels of blood platelets.
Blood platelets circulate within our blood, binding together when they recognize damaged blood vessels, and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says COVID-19 infections make them more prone to forming potentially deadly blood clots.
In the Lancet study, 741 volunteers with COVID-19 received fluvoxamine, while 756 volunteers got a placebo. Just 11 percent of those given fluvoxamine needed hospital treatment, versus almost 16 percent given placebos.
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