Not only the Find a suitable vaccine against the novel corona virus continues to keep scientists busy. It will also be high pressure searched for medicationthat can help alleviate severe disease. Ironically, a hormone, which is mainly due to Doping scandals in sports became known could play a role here. It is erythropoietin, or epo for short. This hormone contributes to the increased formation of red blood cells. Now it may be used against severe Covid-19 disease courses. It could also avert late neurological effects of the viral disease.
Promising observations with Epo
Erythropoietin, usually an anemia medicine, is in the Fight against respiratory disease Covid-19 has already attracted positive attention several times. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have recently published all of these observations in the journal „Molecular Medicine“ collected. In late March, for example, a patient with initially severe corona symptoms was discharged from an Iranian hospital after just seven days. Due to poor blood values, the doctors had prescribed the growth factor Epo among other things.
Growth factor mitigates the course of diseases
The hormone also appeared in South America in connection with the respiratory disease. People from higher regions pointed significantly there less frequent severe illnesses on as a lowland dweller. One possible reason for this: People at high altitudes produce larger amounts of Epo. You need more red blood cells to compensate for the lack of oxygen. Hannelore Ehrenreich, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, who has been researching the effects of the body’s growth factor Epo for over thirty years, also has hope in the hormone. “We have observed, for example, that dialysis patients survive Covid-19 remarkably well – and it is precisely these patients who receive erythropoietin as part of their dialysis,” she points out.
Epo as a natural response to lack of oxygen
Because our body, according to researchers, epo as a natural Response to lack of oxygen distributes, it makes sense to use the active ingredient in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. Because Epo stimulates the formation of red blood cells. In this way, it supplies the brain and muscles with increased oxygen. Animal experiments confirmed these findings. Epo had an impact on areas in the brainstem and spinal cord that are responsible for breathing. Add to that the anti-inflammatory effects of the hormone on immune cells. Epo can also have a positive effect on neurological symptoms and the late effects of the viral disease. These include Headache, dizziness, impaired taste and smell as well as seizures.
Clinical study in planning
The present observations prompt the scientists to go deeper into the effects of the growth factor in a Covid-19 infection. “Covid-19 can have such serious health consequences that we have to investigate any evidence that Epo has a protective effect. After all, there is currently no vaccine or medication, ”explains Ehrenreich. For this reason, a randomized clinical study is now being planned, in which seriously ill Covid-19 patients should receive additional Epo. It remains to be seen whether the hormone is actually reliable alleviate severe illnesses and can protect against neurological late effects from SARS-CoV-2.
You can find out more about possible long-term effects from SARS-CoV-2 here:
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