Covid de lungă durată: un tratament potențial cu medicamente antihistaminice și antiulceroase

Long Covid can manifest with various cardiovascular, psychological, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal, dermatological, and musculoskeletal symptoms. Among these manifestations, the most common are tachycardia, palpitations, postural hypotension, fatigue, cognitive deterioration, shortness of breath, and cough. Currently, there is no standard and effective therapy for this condition.

Professor Carmine Gazzaruso's team examined four groups of characteristic symptoms in Long Covid: fatigue and asthenia, cardiac alterations, brain fog and memory disturbances, gastrointestinal disorders (pain, bloating, meteorism). The study involved 27 non-allergic and unvaccinated patients with persistent symptoms for over six months, who had not responded to other treatments such as multivitamins or beta-blockers.

Professor Gazzaruso specifies: “Fatigue, common to the entire sample under examination, had to be accompanied, for the validity of the study, by at least one of the other symptoms. On average, this was confirmed in the examined patients, who presented with three symptoms, if not the entire symptomatology.”

Previous studies, conducted both nationally and internationally, had detected increased mast cell activation in Long Covid patients, similar to what occurs in allergic individuals who exhibit similar symptoms. In allergic patients, there is a large production of histamine and prostaglandins, substances excessively released by mast cells, as was also detected in the study sample. It follows that Long Covid patients trigger a chronic inflammatory reaction sustained by a mechanism typical of allergies.

Based on this observation, the researchers decided to test two drugs that are not widely used today: fexofenadine (an antihistamine) and famotidine (an anti-ulcer drug), which respectively block the H1 and H2 histamine receptors.

Participants were divided into two groups: 14 received the combination of drugs, while the remaining 13 were part of the control group without treatment. The results were promising: Long Covid symptoms completely disappeared in 29% of patients in the first group after just 20 days of treatment. All other patients of that group still showed significant improvements. In the control group, however, there were no changes in health status.

“This discovery will allow people affected by Long Covid, who present this mast cell-related disorder, to recover or improve their health condition through a very simple and easily obtainable therapy,” says Professor Gazzaruso. “Our insight is also the result of the work of many colleagues around the world who are seeking answers and treatments for all those who, years later, still experience the sometimes very serious and disabling consequences of Covid-19 infection.”