Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32758903›Full record

ArticleMedical hypotheses2020

Mevalonate pathway, selenoproteins, redox balance, immune system, Covid-19: Reasoning about connections.

Giampaolo Minetti

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Medical hypotheses, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.2field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Observational
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Cholesterol, lipoproteins, and COVID-19: Basic concepts and clinical applications.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids · 2021
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Giampaolo MinettiDepartment of Biology and Biotechnology, Laboratories of Biochemistry, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy. Electronic address: minetti@unipv.it.
University of Pavia · IT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It has been proposed that a degraded immune system is (one of) the condition(s) that predispose certain subjects to fatal consequences from infection by SARS-CoV-2. It is unknown whether therapeutic regimens to which these patients may have been subjected to in the months/years preceding the infection could be immunocompromising. Statins are among the most widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs. As competitive inhibitors of HMG-CoA-reductase, the key enzyme of the "mevalonate pathway" through which essential compounds, not only cholesterol, are synthesized, statins decrease the levels of cholesterol, and thus LDLs, as an innate defense mechanism, with controversial results in decreasing mortality from cardiovascular disease. Moreover, statins have pleiotropic, mostly deleterious effects on many cell types, including immune cells. In the attempt to decipher the enigma of SARS-CoV-2 infectivology, the hypothesis should be tested whether the population of subjects who succumbed to Covid-19 may have developed a compromised immunity at sub-clinical levels and have become more susceptible to fatal consequences from SARS-Cov-2 infection due to statin therapy.

Indexed as

COVID-19 Drug TreatmentOxidation-ReductionCholesterolCholesterol, LDLCOVID-19Enzyme InhibitorsHumansHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsImmune SystemImmunity, InnateInflammationLipoproteins, LDLMevalonic AcidModels, TheoreticalOxidative StressSelenoproteinsCholesterolCholesterol, LDLEnzyme InhibitorsHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsLipoproteins, LDLMevalonic AcidSelenoproteinsCholesterolImmune cellsIsopentenyladenosineLDLSARS-CoV-2Statins

Identifiers

PMID32758903
PMCPMC7373006
OpenAlexW3044463005

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.