a study will be carried out in France

Nicotine may have a protective effect against infection with the new coronavirus. This is the hypothesis put forward by researchers in France where preventive and therapeutic trials will be undertaken with nicotine patches, at La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

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The hypothesis is supported by the low number of smokers among hospitalized Covid-19 patients found in various studies around the world and its solid confirmation provided by a new French study on 350 hospitalized patients and 150 lighter who consulted, all with Covid-19 (confirmed by PCR test).

“Among these patients, there were only 5% of smokers” says the professor of internal medicine Zahir Amoura, who carried out this last study, that is to say “80% less smokers in Covid patients than in general population of the same sex and of the same age ”.

“The hypothesis is that nicotine by binding to the cellular receptor used by the coronavirus prevents or retains it from attaching to it” and therefore from entering the cells and spreading in the organism, explains Pr Jean-Pierre Changeux, from the Pasteur Institute and the Collège de France.

As soon as the final green light is obtained, with the support of the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, nicotinic patches will be administered at different dosages in three trials: preventive to caregivers, to see if this protects them; in therapy to patients hospitalized in medicine, in an attempt to reduce their symptoms; and finally to serious patients in intensive care, explains Professor Amoura.