Scientists are investigating whether a common anaemia drug, erythropoietin, could become an effective treatment for COVID-19.
A few case studies suggest it could slow progression of the disease. One COVID-19 patient in Iran was prescribed erythropoietin for low blood count, and was able to leave hospital earlier than expected. In South America, COVID-19 infection appears to be less severe in regions with higher altitudes, where people produce more erythropoietin to compensate.
Dr Hannelore Ehrenreich of the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Gottingen, Germany, analysed previous studies on erythropoietin.
They found that animal experiments show an effect on areas of the brainstem and spinal cord that control breathing. It also has an anti-inflammatory effect, and has the potential to protect against neurological symptoms and long-term effects of COVID-19 such as headaches, dizziness, loss of smell and taste, and seizures.
Results were published recently in Molecular Medicine.
Dr Ehrenreich says: "Because COVID-19 can have such severe health-related consequences, we must investigate any evidence of a protective effect of erythropoietin. After all, there is currently neither a vaccine nor a medication for the disease. We are therefore preparing a ‘proof-of-concept study’ to investigate the effect of erythropoietin on COVID-19 in humans.
"For example, we have observed that dialysis patients withstand COVID-19 remarkably well – and it is precisely these patients who regularly receive erythropoietin."
* Serious brain inflammation, delirium and stroke are among the neurological complications of COVID-19 infection, researchers reported today.
Doctors in London, UK, found a high prevalence of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis among victims of the virus, according to an analysis published in the journal Brain.
The study involved 43 patients treated at the specialist National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London.
There were ten cases of transient encephalopathies with delirium. There were eight strokes and eight instances of nerve damage, mainly presenting as Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Out of 12 cases of inflammation, nine were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.
The researchers say the virus was not detected in cerebrospinal fluid, raising questions about how it caused damage.
Dr Michael Zandi, of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, said: "We should be vigilant and look out for these complications in people who have had COVID-19. Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic – perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic – remains to be seen."
Ehrenreich, H. et al. Erythropoietin as candidate for supportive treatment of severe COVID-19. Molecular Medicine 16 June 2020; doi: 10.1186/s10020-020-00186-y
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s10020-020-00186-y
Brain 7 July 2020
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