key: cord-0865490-bn0atnu7
authors: EL‐Arabey, Amr Ahmed; Abdalla, Mohnad
title: Metformin and COVID‐19: A novel deal of an Old Drug
date: 2020-04-29
journal: J Med Virol
DOI: 10.1002/jmv.25958
sha: 7047e6b149c25b48e757e6f22f4aa36c03df3a7c
doc_id: 865490
cord_uid: bn0atnu7

In 2002, China witnessed the emergence of a severe acute respiratory disease caused by coronavirus SARS‐CoV. Ten years later in 2012 a new version of the virus appeared in the Middle East known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus MERS‐CoV. At the end of 2019, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) recorded a pneumonia of unknown causes. Epidemiologically, the pneumonia was linked to a wet animal and seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, later Known by COVID‐19. The COVID‐19 is a global pandemic infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). Till now the total number of confirmed cases is 2,709,483 in over 225 countries around the world. A recent report indicates that obesity may responsible for increasing the mortality of COVID‐19 in Italy rather than in China. Here we would like to shed light on a new suggestion to decrease the mortality rate of COVID‐19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

To the Editor: Furthermore, a recent cohort study for 23,920 individuals with asthma and diabetes, the initiation of metformin was associated with a lower hazard ratio (0.92) of asthma exacerbation, driven by lower hazards of asthma-related emergency department visits (0.81) and

hospitalizations (0.67) 8 . Substantially, people in old age have more prone to COVID-19 than younger age. The death rate of elderly patients with COVID-19 is higher than that of young and middle-aged patients 9 . Consequently, it is now appropriate for the FDA to change the status of metformin to on-label use as adjuvant therapy to decrease the mortality rate of COVID-19 in elderly, obese and diabetic patients through the reduction of weight and pneumonia.

Keywords: COVID-19; Metformin; Obesity; Diabetic; Older;

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): The epidemic and the challenges

Obesity and its Implications for COVID-19 Mortality. Obesity (Silver Spring)

Metformin: historical overview

Update on off label use of metformin for obesity

Metformin: Ongoing journey with superdrug revolution

Metformin Might Inhibit Virus through Increasing Insulin Sensitivity

Association of metformin and mortality for patients with diabetes who are hospitalized with pneumonia

Association of Metformin Initiation and Risk of Asthma Exacerbation A Claims-based Cohort Study

Clinical features of COVID-19 in elderly patients: A comparison with young and middle-aged patients

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.