Lithium Carbonate Effective Treatment for Covid19

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We have described here, for the first time, a rationale proposal to treat COVID-19-positive patients with lithium carbonate. We have presented data from a group of six COVID-19 patients on standard treatment plus lithium carbonate vs. three control cases who only received standard treatment.

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During hospitalization, non-survivors demonstrated a more significant deterioration in lymphopenia compared with those who survived (Wang et al., 2020). Patients on lithium carbonate were able to quickly increase the number of lymphocytes and finally achieved normal lymphocyte values.

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Another parameter that suggests a worsened evolution of the infection is the NLR, which is significantly associated with elevated cytokine levels and a poorer disease prognosis (Lagunas-Rangel, 2020; Liu et al., 2020). In patients treated with lithium carbonate, we observed that the NLR decreased after treatment, and in those patients where it was necessary to increase the lithium dose, a greater improvement was seen until they normalized completely.

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Platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) has been described recently, together with the NLR, as a prognostic factor for the severity of COVID-19 infection (Terpos et al., 2020). In our case series we found that, along with the NLR, PLR was also completely normalized by lithium treatment. These data suggest that lithium treatment reduces the inflammatory state of patients with COVID-19, by lowering CRP levels and improving the NLR and PLR. In addition, another positive effect of lithium carbonate is that it seems to improve their immunological effects by increasing lymphocyte levels. All patients treated with lithium carbonate improved their clinical status and were discharged (except patient 6, who remains in the ICU but with no more need for ventilation).

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Lithium is a drug that has been used by doctors for the last 70 years, and it has been shown to have antiviral properties against different RNA and DNA viruses. We hope that we will be able to elucidate its promising antiviral actions against COVID-19 in future research. It has also been shown elsewhere that lithium may influence inflammation and lymphocyte count. As we now know, lymphocyte numbers are largely decreased by COVID-19 in severely affected patients, and interestingly, we have seen how this is reversed in all six patients treated with lithium.

In conclusion, treatment with lithium carbonate may open a new therapeutic possibility to treat COVID-19-positive patients. We are aware of the severe limitations of this study such as the small number of cases and the lack of randomization. However, we still believe that these preliminary results should be available to the scientific community, encouraging other colleagues to conduct new studies that may lead to the evaluation of lithium as a potential treatment for severe cases of COVID-19 infection.

We have also asked for permission to start a clinical trial to overcome these limitations
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