Drug Used to Treat High Cholesterol May Eliminate COVID-19 Infection in Days, Study Finds

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7-08-2021, 09:47

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A new study revealed that a common medication used to treat high cholesterol levels, may also prove effective in treating the novel corona virus.

A research team, led by the University of Birmingham and Keele University scientist, has found that fenofibrate and its active form, fenofibric acid,

could significantly reduce COVID-19 infections in humans.

Fenofibrate, an oral drug used to treat abnormal blood lipid levels and high cholesterol, is approved for use in UK.

The drug is more effective than statins at increasing HDL (‘good’) cholesterol levels, but less effective than statins at lowering LDL (‘bad’)

cholesterol levels.

In 2020, scientists discovered that the COVID-19 virus used ACE2 receptors to enter lung cells.

The virus infects the host through an interaction between the ‘spike’ protein on the surface of the virus and the ACE2 receptor protein on host cells.

Fenofibric acid also destabilises the receptor binding domain of the viral spike protein, and inhibits the cell by binding to ACE2 receptors.

This prompted researchers to investigate the efficacy of fenofibrate in reducing infection in cells using original strains of COVID-19.

Using concentrations of the drug which are ‘safe and achievable’ - according to the standard clinical dose of fenofibrate - researchers observed infection rates in human cells dropped by up to 70 percent.