ReviewFrontiers in immunology2020
Immunomodulatory and Antiviral Activity of Metformin and Its Potential Implications in Treating Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Lung Injury.
Review in Frontiers in immunology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06691542 (Efficacy and Safety of Platelet-rich Plasma, Metformin and Cryotherapy in Treatment of Non-genital Warts), which is not on this map. Cited by 44 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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.
Efficacy and Safety of Platelet-rich Plasma, Metformin and Cryotherapy in Treatment of Non-genital Warts
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Antihyperglycemic Medications on COVID-19: A Meta-analysis and Systematic Review from Observational Studies.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2024 · on this mapPooled it
- Association Between Anti-diabetic Agents and Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19 in Patients with Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Archives of medical research · 2022Pooled it
- Managing diabetes in diabetic patients with COVID: where do we start from?Acta diabetologica · 2021Pooled it
- Drug Repurposing as a Broad-Spectrum Strategy Against Coronaviruses: Frontiers in Mechanisms and Clinical Translation.Viruses · 2026Review
- Prior SGLT2 Inhibitor and Metformin Use and Risk of Long COVID in Type 2 Diabetes: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- Metformin in skin diseases: the role of gut microbiota and immune response.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2026Review
- Effect of Metformin on the Risk of Post-COVID-19 Condition Among Individuals With Overweight or Obese: A Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a correlative factor of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates: associations with lymphocyte subsets alterations.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Longitudinal gene expression analysis in COVID-19 sepsis highlights dynamic immune, cellular, and metabolic dysfunction in high severity patients.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A Perspective on the Role of Metformin in Treating Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Review
- Recent Advances in Injectable Hydrogel Biotherapeutics for Regenerative Dental Medicine.Macromolecular bioscience · 2025Review
- Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species: A Unifying Mechanism in Long COVID and Spike Protein-Associated Injury: A Narrative Review.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Targeting SIRT1: A Potential Strategy for Combating Severe COVID-19.BioMed research international · 2025Review
- Review
- Metformin use and its association with various outcomes in COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus: a retrospective cohort study in a tertiary care facility.Annals of medicine · 2024Article
- Diverse Applications of the Anti-Diabetic Drug Metformin in Treating Human Disease.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- A Dual Pharmacological Strategy against COVID-19: The Therapeutic Potential of Metformin and Atorvastatin.Microorganisms · 2024Review
- The F/B ratio as a biomarker for inflammation in COVID-19 and T2D: Impact of metformin.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2023Article
- Metformin in COVID-19: Is There a Role Beyond Glycemic Control?International journal of endocrinology and metabolism · 2023Review
- Metformin is associated with reduced COVID-19 severity in patients with prediabetes.Diabetes research and clinical practice · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a disease which causes severe lung injury and multiple organ damage, presents an urgent need for new drugs. The case severity and fatality of COVID-19 are associated with excessive inflammation, namely, a cytokine storm. Metformin, a widely used drug to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D) mellitus and metabolic syndrome, has immunomodulatory activity that reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines using macrophages and causes the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Metformin also inhibits the cytokine production of pathogenic Th1 and Th17 cells. Importantly, treatment with metformin alleviates various lung injuries in preclinical animal models. In addition, a recent proteomic study revealed that metformin has the potential to directly inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, retrospective clinical studies have revealed that metformin treatment reduces the mortality of T2D with COVID-19. Therefore, metformin has the potential to be repurposed to treat patients with COVID-19 at risk of developing severe illness. This review summarizes the immune pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 and addresses the effects of metformin on inhibiting cytokine storms and preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as its side effects.
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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.