Anticoagulant Drugs Have Beneficial Side Effects for COVID-19 Patients

Anticoagulant drugs not only have a beneficial effect on the survival of COVID-19 patients but also influence the duration of active infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, according to researchers at the Medical University of Vienna. The results were published in the journal Cardiovascular Research. COVID-19 is a multifaceted infectious disease. At the start of the global pandemic, it was assumed that COVID-19 was primarily a disease of the lungs, it is now known that several functional systems in the human body are affected following infection with the pathogen SARS-CoV-2.

One of these functional systems is blood clotting. The use of drugs that inhibit blood clotting has been part of the treatment guidelines for COVID-19 since July 2020.

"These complications during hospitalization have a direct impact on the well-being of patients and increased the risk of dying from COVID-19," reports David Pereyra from MedUni Vienna’s Department of General Surgery, who is the first author of the publication.

COVID-19-associated blood clotting displays characteristics that, although partially comparable with other coagulation diseases, cannot be fully explained by them.

Later, analyses showed that the period of active COVID-19 infection is curtailed in patients treated with low-molecular-weight heparin, the most commonly used anticoagulant.

In patients who receive this drug, infection time is an average of four days shorter than in patients who are not treated with low-molecular-weight heparin.

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Experimental data show that heparin can inhibit the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to bind to cells, thereby preventing them from being infected.

These observations underscore the relevance of good cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic for a better understanding of the disease and its treatment.

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Source-Medindia