Abstract
Background
Effort to search for the optimal COVID-19 treatment has continuously been attempted. Thymosin alpha-1 have immunomodulatory properties which may be beneficial in case of viral infection. This study’s goal is to determine whether thymosin alpha-1 is effective in treating people with moderate-to-severe COVID-19.
Methods
We searched for literature in 4 database: Scopus, Europe PMC, Medline, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane Library until March 25th, 2023. If those articles have data on the efficacy of thymosin alpha-1 therapy on COVID-19, they would be included. Risk ratio (RR) and Mean Difference (MD) along with their 95% confidence intervals were used to pool the results of dichotomous and continuous variables, respectively.
Results
Pooled data from 8 studies indicated that moderate to critical Covid-19 patients who were receiving thymosin alpha-1 therapy had significantly lower mortality from COVID-19 (RR 0.59; 95% CI 0.37–0.93, p = 0.02, I2 = 84%), but without any difference in the needs for mechanical ventilation (RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.48–1.44, p = 0.51, I2 = 74%) and hospital length of stay (MD 2.32; 95% CI – 0.93, 5.58, p = 0.16, I2 = 94%) compared to placebo. The benefits of thymosin alpha-1 on the mortality rate were significantly affected only by sample size (p = 0.0000) and sex (p = 0.0117).
Conclusion
Our study suggests that treatment with thymosin alpha-1 may reduce mortality rate in moderate to critical COVID-19 patients. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are still required to verify the findings of our study.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available as RevMan file (.rm5) from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Conceptualization: AYS, HS, TAY, TIH; Methodology: AYS and TAY; Formal analysis: AYS and TAY; Data curation: AYS and TAY, Validation: HS and TIH; Supervision: HS and TIH; Writing-original draft: AYS and TAY; Writing-review and editing: HS and TIH.
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Soeroto, A.Y., Suryadinata, H., Yanto, T.A. et al. The efficacy of thymosin alpha-1 therapy in moderate to critical COVID-19 patients: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Inflammopharmacol 31, 3317–3325 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-023-01354-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-023-01354-2