Common heart drug may help COVID-19 patients

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-31 04:00

International

A drug commonly used to treat heart conditions and high blood pressure may also be helpful for patients critically ill with COVID-19. The drug, called metoprolol was tested against no treatment in a small trial of 20 COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation. The study found that the drug was safe, reduced lung inflammation, and improved oxygenation. The authors say repurposing metoprolol for COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome appears to be a safe and inexpensive strategy that can alleviate the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Journal/
conference: Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Spain

Funder: Mr Clemente-Moragón is supported by a fellowship from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (FPU2017/01932). The CNIC is supported by the ISCIII, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and the Pro CNIC Foundation. Dr Ibáñez is supported by the European Commission (ERC-CoG grant No 819775) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCN; “RETOS 2019” grant No PID2019- 107332RB-I00). Dr Oliver is supported by funds from the Comunidad de Madrid Programa de Atracción de Talento (2017-T1/BMD-5185). All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.

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