ReviewThe FEBS journal2020
Nicotine and the nicotinic cholinergic system in COVID-19.
Review in The FEBS journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 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
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Hospitalised Current Smokers and COVID-19.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- The effect of nicotine delivery system on blood protease levels: a randomized crossover study.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Nicotine patches in patients on mechanical ventilation for severe COVID-19: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial.Intensive care medicine · 2022Trial
- Historical and Current Ethnographic Use of Tobacco in Brazil: Implications for the Medicinal Use of Nicotine in Parkinson's Disease.Journal of environmental science and public health · 2026Article
- Cigarette smoking history, e-cigarette use, and Long COVID: a population-based analysis.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Association between vagus nerve cross-sectional area measured by ultrasound and inflammatory biomarkers in hospitalised patients with COVID-19.Journal of medical biochemistry · 2026Article
- Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Pathways in Cancer: From Psychiatric Clues to Therapeutic Opportunities.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Review
- Nicotine from a Different Angle: Biological Effects from a Psychoneuroimmunological Perspective.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The association between tobacco use and COVID-19 diagnoses in three Nordic countries: a pooled analysis.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Role of Glial Cells and Receptors in Schizophrenia Pathogenesis.Neurochemical research · 2025Review
- Google Trends Assessment of Keywords Related to Smoking and Smoking Cessation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 4 European Countries: Retrospective Analysis.Online journal of public health informatics · 2024Article
- Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Glial Cells as Molecular Target for Parkinson's Disease.Cells · 2024Review
- Can Intranasal Insulin and Cholinergic Agonist Improve Post-Covid-19 Cognition Impairment?Advanced pharmaceutical bulletin · 2024Article
- Regulation of Inflammation by IRAK-M Pathway Can Be Associated with nAchRalpha7 Activation and COVID-19.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- Article
- Review
- Nicotine plays a protective role in rats with induced viral pneumonia with polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid through α7nAChR.Heliyon · 2023Article
- COVID-19 and tobacco products use among US adults, 2021 National Health Interview Survey.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Cholinergic dysfunction in COVID-19: frantic search and hoping for the best.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2023Review
- Determination of soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in saliva samples and its association with nicotine.Environmental research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
There is an urgent need to address the devastating pandemic, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2. The efforts to understand the details of this disease in hope of providing effective treatments are commendable. It is clear now that the virus can cause far more damage in patients with comorbid conditions-particularly in those with respiratory, cardiovascular, or immune-compromised system-than in patients without such comorbidities. Drug use can further exacerbate the condition. In this regard, the ill effects of smoking are amply documented, and no doubt can be a confounding factor in COVID-19 progression. Although conflicting hypotheses on the potential role of nicotine in COVID-19 pathology have recently been offered, we believe that nicotine itself, through its interaction with the nicotinic cholinergic system, as well as ACE2, may not only be of use in a variety of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, but may also be of potential use in COVID-19. Thus, on one hand, while we strongly support smoking cessation as a means of harm reduction associated with COVID-19, on the other hand, we support a potential therapeutic role for nicotine, nicotinic agonists, or positive allosteric modulators of nicotinic cholinergic receptors in COVID-19, owing to their varied effects including mood regulation, anti-inflammatory, and purported interference with SARS-CoV-2 entry and/or replication.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.