Does recombinant human erythropoietin administration in critically ill COVID-19 patients have miraculous therapeutic effects?
- 18 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Medical Virology
- Vol. 92 (7), 915-918
- https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25839
Abstract
An 80-year-old man with multiple comorbidities presented to the emergency department with tachypnea, tachycardia, fever, and critically low O-2 saturation and definitive chest computerized tomography scan findings in favor of COVID-19 and positive PCR results in 48 hours. He received antiviral treatment plus recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) due to his severe anemia. After 7 days of treatment, he was discharged with miraculous improvement in his symptoms and hemoglobin level. We concluded that rhEPO could attenuate respiratory distress syndrome and confront the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus through multiple mechanisms including cytokine modulation, antiapoptotic effects, leukocyte release from bone marrow, and iron redistribution away from the intracellular virus.This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Erythropoietin attenuates renal and pulmonary injury in polymicrobial induced-sepsis through EPO-R, VEGF and VEGF-R2 modulationBiomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2016
- Protective effect of erythropoietin against myocardial injury in rats with sepsis and its underlying mechanismsMolecular Medicine Reports, 2015
- Erythropoetin as a novel agent with pleiotropic effects against acute lung injuryEuropean Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2010
- Erythropoietin inhibits respiratory epithelial cell apoptosis in a model of acute lung injuryEuropean Respiratory Journal, 2009
- Viral infection and iron metabolismNature Reviews Microbiology, 2008
- Advances in understanding sepsisEuropean Journal of Anaesthesiology, 2008
- Erythropoietin pharmacology.2007
- Erythropoietin pharmacologyClinical and Translational Oncology, 2007
- Mortality and target haemoglobin concentrations in anaemic patients with chronic kidney disease treated with erythropoietin: a meta-analysisThe Lancet, 2007
- Cancer-related anemia and recombinant human erythropoietin—an updated overviewNature Clinical Practice Oncology, 2006