Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been large-scale speculation with respect to smoking cigarettes and the probability of catching the virus.
On the one hand, there are some studies that have suggested that smoking can increase the severity of the disease. On the other hand, there are also reports that have suggested less number of Covid cases amongst smokers as compared to non-smokers.
New research conducted at the Hiroshima University in Japan has helped identify that certain drugs that imitate the effects of cigarette smoke can help reduce the ability of the Covid-19 virus to enter the cells.
Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study suggests that the cigarette smoke extract and the two drugs can help suppress the creation of ACE2 proteins. By doing so, it will also help reduce the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the cell.
The team is now all set to conduct pre-clinical and clinical trials on the drugs as novel anti-Covid19 therapy.
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