NSAIDS increase the Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in the lungs, arteries, heart, kidney, and intestines and this enzyme is sometimes used by coronavirus as a cell entry point. Researchers worried that the NSAIDS could be harmful because of this and that they might delay diagnosis by masking symptoms such as fever and inflammation.
Using data from 255 UK medical facilities on some 60% of the country's hospitalized corona cases, researcher Thomas Drake and his colleagues studied the relation between NSAID exposure and severe coronavirus symptoms. They looked at mortality rates, patients in critical condition, tracheal intubation, oxygen ventilation, and kidney damage among patients who took NSAIDs within 2 weeks of hospitalization compared to those who didn't.
The results did not show any significant association between the drugs and the worsening of the aforementioned conditions. What's more, NSAID use was similar in those who died and those who survived.
These results seem to support the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who all said NSAIDs can be taken for coronavirus symptoms, with careful monitoring.
However, the study did not account for the potential influence discontinuation of the drugs in the hospital, low dosages, and a short treatment period, may have had on the data. It also did not address which drug families are the most effective in treating coronavirus symptoms. Therefore, more research on the effects of NSRAIDs on worsening coronavirus symptoms is likely to follow.