Can nicotine help coronavirus patients? French researchers want them to wear patches
French researchers want coronavirus patients to wear nicotine patches to study whether it helps prevent or control the disease.
Their review of more than 480 patients with COVID-19 at a large hospital found about 5% of the people to be daily smokers, according to an article on Qeios. An estimated 25% of the French population smoke daily, the researchers said.
“As the pandemic of COVID-19 is still under progression, identification of prognostic factors remains a global challenge,” according to the article. “The role of cigarette smoking has been suggested among the disease’s epidemiological risk factors, although it is highly controversial.”
According to the CDC, smoking causes people to be immunocompromised and therefore at higher risk of serious sickness. Additionally, the FDA says smokers may have a higher risk of infection and worse illness from COVID-19, Bloomberg reported.
While the French scientists agree smoking has severe health risks, they say nicotine could be a treatment for coronavirus in controlled settings.
So, they plan to put nicotine patches on hospitalized patients and the general population to test their hypothesis. Additionally, the researchers want to try out chewing and sniffing nicotine products.
Neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux, a co-author of the research, said the theory is nicotine might attach to cell receptors and block the coronavirus from spreading, AFP reported.
Clinical trials are awaiting the go-ahead from health authorities in France, The Guardian reported. The research team wants to put nicotine patches on medical workers, infected patients and people in intensive-care units, the news outlet reported.
The findings are similar to data from China published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, AFP reported. Out of 1,000 people infected in China, about 12.6% were smokers compared with about 26% in the general population, according to the news outlet.
“We must not forget the harmful effects of nicotine,” said Jerome Salomon, France’s top health official, according to AFP. “Those who do not smoke should absolutely not use nicotine substitutes.”