Alert to US physicians: DHEA, widely used as an OTC androgen supplement, may exacerbate COVID-19.
Endocr Relat Cancer
; 28(2): R47-R53, 2021 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-953681
ABSTRACT
Androgens play a fundamental role in the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, inducing both the ACE-2 receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 binds to gain entry into the cell, and TMPRS22, the transmembrane protease that primes the viral spike protein for efficient infection. The United States stands alone among developed nations in permitting one androgen, oral DHEA, to be freely available OTC and online as a 'dietary supplement'. DHEA is widely used by males in the US to offset the age-related decline in circulating androgens. This fact may contribute to the disparate statistics of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in this country. In regulatory antithesis, every other developed nation regulates DHEA as a controlled substance. DHEA is an extremely potent inhibitor of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), with uniquely unstable uncompetitive inhibition kinetics. This has particular relevance to COVID-19 because G6PD-deficient human cells have been demonstrated to be exceptionally sensitive to infection by human coronavirus. Because DHEA is lipophilic and freely passes into cells, oral DHEA bypasses the normal controls regulating androgen biology and uncompetitive G6PD inhibition. DHEA's status as a 'dietary supplement' means that no clinical trials demonstrating safety have been performed, and, in the absence of physician supervision, no data on adverse events have been collected. During the current pandemic, the unrestricted availability of oral DHEA as a 'dietary supplement' cannot be considered safe without proof from placebo-controlled clinical trials that it is not contributing to the severity of COVID-19. US physicians may therefore wish to query their patients' use of DHEA.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Dehydroepiandrosterone
/
Nonprescription Drugs
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Traditional medicine
Limits:
Animals
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Endocr Relat Cancer
Journal subject:
Endocrinology
/
Neoplasms
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
ERC-20-0439
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