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Nicotine could protect individuals from contracting the coronavirus, according to new research in France, where additional trials are planned to check whether the substance might be used to avoid or deal with the deadly illness.
The findings come after scientists at a top Paris hospital examined 343 coronavirus patients in addition to 139 individuals contaminated with the disease with milder signs.
They found that a low number of them smoked, compared to cigarette smoking rates of around 35 percent in France’s general population.
” Amongst these clients, just five percent were cigarette smokers,” said Zahir Amoura, the research study’s co-author and a teacher of internal medication.
The research echoed comparable findings released in the New England Journal of Medicine last month that recommended that 12.6 percent of 1,000 individuals contaminated in China were cigarette smokers. That was a much lower figure than the variety of regular smokers in China’s basic population, about 26 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The theory is that nicotine could comply with cell receptors, for that reason obstructing the infection from going into cells and spreading out in the body, according to renown neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux from France’s Pasteur Institut, who likewise co-authored the research study.
The scientists are awaiting approval from health authorities in France to carry out further scientific trials.
They plan to use nicotine patches on health employees at the Pitie-Salpetriere health center in Paris– where the preliminary research was carried out– to see if it protects them against contracting the infection.
They have actually likewise used to use the spots on hospitalised clients to see whether it helps reduce signs and also on more severe intensive care patients, Amoura said.
The scientists are checking out whether nicotine might help to avoid “cytokine storms”, a rapid overreaction of the immune system that researchers believe might play a crucial role in fatal COVID-19 cases.
But with additional research needed, professionals are not motivating individuals to pick up smoking or utilize nicotine spots as a protective step versus the virus.
” We need to not forget the damaging results of nicotine,” stated Jerome Salomon, France’s top health official.
” Those who do not smoke should absolutely not utilize nicotine substitutes”, which cause negative effects and dependency, he alerted.
Tobacco is the primary killer in France, with an approximated 75,000 deaths annually linked to cigarette smoking.
France is one of the hardest struck countries by the coronavirus in Europe, with more than 21,000 deaths and over 155,000 reported infections.
( AFP)
