ReviewInternational journal of bipolar disorders2020
Lithium's antiviral effects: a potential drug for CoViD-19 disease?
Review in International journal of bipolar disorders, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychotropic drug repurposing for COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Using multi-trait polygenic scores to predict lithium responsiveness in patients with bipolar disorder.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Lithium-Charged Gold Nanoparticles: A New Powerful Tool for Lithium Delivery and Modulation of Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Activity.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- A Survey Exploring People's Experiences With Lithium Bought as a Supplement: Une enquête sur l'expérience des personnes avec le lithium en supplément.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2025Article
- The Mechanisms of Lithium Action: The Old and New Findings.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Reduced risk of severe COVID-19 with lithium use: a large-scale comparison with valproate users and other COVID-19 patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Inositol metabolism as a broad-spectrum antiviral target.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Lithium: current state of the art and future directions.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2024Review
- Abelson Helper Integration Site 1 haplotypes and peripheral blood expression associates with lithium response and immunomodulation in bipolar patients.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Can lithium be used in the setting of clozapine commencement in patients with COVID-19 associated neutropenia: A case report.Clinical case reports · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of ultra-long-term lithium treatment: relevant factors and case series.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2024Review
- COVID-19-associated mortality in individuals with serious mental disorders in Sweden during the first two years of the pandemic- a population-based register study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Exploring the Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium in Ischemic Stroke: A literature review.International journal of medical sciences · 2024Review
- Long-Term Lithium Therapy: Side Effects and Interactions.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Li-Doped Bioactive Ceramics: Promising Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.Journal of functional biomaterials · 2022Review
- Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic effects of different vitamins and minerals in COVID-19 patients.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2022Review
- Association between serum lithium level and incidence of COVID-19 infection.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2022Article
- Post-COVID-19 Depressive Symptoms: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacological Treatment.CNS drugs · 2022Review
- Supratherapeutic lithium levels in COVID-19 infection.Bipolar disorders · 2022Article
- Lithium salts as a treatment for COVID-19: Pre-clinical outcomes.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSince its introduction in modern medicine, naturalistic observations emerged about possible uses of lithium treatment for conditions different from recurring affective disorders, for which it is still a first-line treatment option. Some evidence about the antiviral properties of lithium began in the early 1970s, when some reports found a reduction of labial-herpetic recurrences. The present review aims to present most of the pre-clinical and clinical evidence about lithium's ability to inhibit DNA and RNA viruses, including Coronaviridae, as well as the possible pathways and mechanisms involved in such antiviral activity. MAIN BODY: Despite a broad number of in vitro studies, the rationale for the antiviral activity of lithium failed to translate into methodologically sound clinical studies demonstrating its antiviral efficacy. In addition, the tolerability of lithium as an antiviral agent should be addressed. In fact, treatment with lithium requires continuous monitoring of its serum levels in order to prevent acute toxicity and long-term side effects, most notably affecting the kidney and thyroid. Yet lithium reaches heterogeneous but bioequivalent concentrations in different tissues, and the anatomical compartment of the viral infection might underpin a different, lower need for tolerability concerns which need to be addressed.
conclusionsLithium presents a clear antiviral activity demonstrated at preclinical level, but that remains to be confirmed in clinical settings. In addition, the pleiotropic mechanisms of action of lithium may provide an insight for its possible use as antiviral agent targeting specific pathways.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.