In a new study from the University of Sydney, researchers found that some of the most common pain and fever medicines might increase vulnerability to infections like COVID-19, while others may hold hope for improving our immune response.
They focused on paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and opioid analgesics.
The findings highlight the potential for some of these medicines to join the fight against old and new infectious diseases.
In the study, the team found some of the common pain and fever medications may work with the immune system to fight infection, whereas others work against it and increase the risk of contracting or responding badly to infectious diseases.
For pain: Morphine suppresses key cells of the immune system and increases the risk of infection, particularly after cancer surgery.
For fever: Antipyretics—e.g., paracetamol, ibuprofen, aspirin—can reduce the desirable immune response when taken for vaccination.
Aspirin could be an affordable and accessible therapeutic option for tuberculosis—which mainly afflicts poor countries, with beneficial results shown in animals and humans.
Anti-inflammatory medicine indomethacin may reduce viral replication in COVID-19 but large-scale human trials are needed.
The team says an important finding of this review during the pandemic was that morphine—one of the most commonly used opioid analgesics in post-surgical and critical care—suppresses key innate immunity cells, thereby increasing the risk of infection.
This is particularly the case with cancer patients, who are already vulnerable to COVID-19.
On the positive side, the findings provide new insights for further research to evaluate these commonly used medicines, which could be repurposed to improve outcomes for people undergoing treatment for infectious diseases.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about why smokers have a lower risk of COVID-19, and findings of anti-inflammatory drug that could reduce COVID-19 death risk.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies about drug that may help prevent serious illness in COVID-19, and results showing this drug may improve survival in people with diabetes and COVID-19.
The study is published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and was conducted by Christina Abdel-Shaheed et al.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
