Nicotine being tested for Covid-19 treatment. More woo?

French researchers to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients

Study – which stresses serious health risks of smoking – suggest substance in tobacco may lower risk of getting coronavirus

French researchers are planning to test nicotine patches on coronavirus patients and frontline health workers after a study suggested smokers may be much less at risk of contracting the virus.

The study at a major Paris hospital suggests a substance in tobacco – possibly nicotine – may be stopping patients who smoke from catching Covid-19. Clinical trials of nicotine patches are awaiting the approval of the country’s health authorities.

However, the researchers insisted they were not encouraging the population to take up smoking, which carries other potentially fatal health risks and kills 50% of those who take it up. While nicotine may protect those from the virus, smokers who have caught it often develop more serious symptoms because of the toxic effect of tobacco smoke on the lungs, they say.

The team at Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital questioned 480 patients who tested positive for the virus, 350 of whom were hospitalised while the rest with less serious symptoms were allowed home.

It found that of those admitted to hospital, whose median age was 65, only 4.4% were regular smokers. Among those released home, with a median age of 44, 5.3% smoked.

Nicotine causes dose-dependent inhibition of the growth of various bacterial and fungal pathogens (Pavia et al., 2000 ), and has been shown to kill parasitoids in two caterpillar species (Barbosa et al., 1986). Nicotine also has antiviral effects, as shown for the hepatitis C virus, where the alkaloid inhibits viral replication (Yamashina et al., 2008 ). In a recent study, another nectar alkaloid, gelsemine, reduced infection by a protozoan pathogen (Crithidia bombi) in bumble bees (Manson et al., 2010).