Mother hormone alleviates COVID-19 severity: study

BEIJING, April 26– Chinese scientists found that a mother hormone can help trigger the human body’s innate response against the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. They suggested that the hormone may treat the infectious disease. The researchers from Wuhan University found that progesterone induces antiviral genes and promotes innate antiviral…

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) — Chinese scientists found that a mother hormone can help trigger the human body’s innate response against the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. They suggested that the hormone may treat the infectious disease.

Progesterone, a hormone produced in the ovaries of women and helps prepare the body for pregnancy, could ameliorate the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia in mice, noted the study published Monday in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.

The researchers from Wuhan University found that progesterone induces antiviral genes and promotes innate antiviral response in cells and rodents, while a knockout of the progesterone receptor has opposite effects.

Some COVID-19 patients had higher-level serum progesterone. It correlated with decreased severity of COVID-19, said the study.

The study points to progesterone as a potential immunomodulatory reagent for infectious and inflammatory diseases like COVID-19. Enditem