MedicalXpress: Diabetes drug lowers COVID-19 viral load 4-fold, study finds

A team of University of Minnesota researchers found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, can decrease the amount of COVID-19 virus in the body and lower the chances of the virus coming back strongly after initial treatment, reports MedicalXpress. The study was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

These researchers compared the viral load of patients with the coronavirus who took metformin, the placebo—the pills that do not contain the active substance—, or ivermectin. The latter is used in order to treat parasites, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were data about its effectiveness in the fight against the virus.

The new study showed that the viral load was nearly four times lower in patients who took metformin compared to those who took the placebo or ivermectin.

Until then, a high viral load was associated with a more severe course of the coronavirus.

Metformin was effective in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients infected with alpha, delta, or omicron strains.

The results explain why metformin reduced the likelihood of hospitalization or long-term infection with COVID in a previous study.

This research could be groundbreaking and convince doctors to prescribe metformin for the treatment of COVID, its authors noted.

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