Comment

Comment by CapriciousCptl

__This is not medical advice. Do not go out and take a bunch of losartan without a doctor, you could die.__

Here's the article's main point (from 2005): Kuba et al showed that by injecting losartan into mice (a common ACE inhibitor that is off patent) with a SARS-Coronavirus protein leads to less lung injury than the controls without losartan. No studies have shown this works in living, breathing humans, but...

(Oral) losartan is widely available (at least right now), it can be prescribed off-label by doctors and picked up today. As its on-label use is treating hypertension, obviously it will lead to low blood pressure, along with all the other possible side effects including life-threatening swelling and more. And since dehydration and sepsis can also lead to lower blood pressure, you'd be playing with fire in life-threatening ways without careful watch by a doctor. You can bet this is a source of ongoing research and trials, probably already underway.

__This is not medical advice. Do not go out and take a bunch of losartan without a doctor, you could die.__

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton