There is still not enough research and studies done to validate a causal relation between statins and COVID-19.

• Statin's ability to increase ACE2 expression can be concerning

University of California, Davis

Statin inhibits HMG-CoA reductase and is used to lower cholesterol. It has anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties and also increases the cellular expression of ACE2. Further studies should be conducted to learn about the full effects of this drug.

Statin as a treatment for COVID-19

Fajgenbaum, D. C., & Rader, D. J. (2020). Teaching Old Drugs New Tricks: Statins for COVID-19? Cell Metabolism, 32(2), 145-147. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2020.07.006

Teaching Old Drugs New Tricks: Statins for COVID-19?

• A study in Hubei Province, China found that patients who received statin had lower mortality rate of 5.2% compared to 9.4% mortality rate in patients who did not receive statin.

• In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated statins' ability to suppress TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling and regulate NLRP3.

• 5μM of statin concentration was shown to moderately reduce the infectivity of alphacoronavirus 229E. Fluvastatin showed the greatest promise as it seemed to reduce infection in a dose-dependent process and had a IC50 value of 9.8μM. There was no sign of cell toxicity.

• Some reduction observed in replication of viral genome when 10μM Fluvastatin was given to human respiratory epithelial cells before they were introduced to betacoronavirus.

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