Chronic alcohol consumption may negatively impact COVID-19 outcomes: Lancet

Alcohol has become an important part of the society, people drink to socialize, celebrate, and relax. Alcohol often has a strong effect on people and is addictive its adverse effects is a rising concern. Alcohol consumption is widespread in the United States, with 55% of the American population over 18 years of age reporting alcohol use within the last 30 days. Alarmingly, 25% and 6.3% of adults over 18 years of age are classified as binge or Chronic heavy drinkers (CHD).

Few studies have hypothesized that chronic alcohol consumption negatively impacts COVID-19 outcomes; the interplay between chronic alcohol use and SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes has yet to be elucidated. To throw light on the same a group of researchers conducted a study published in The Lancet.

The study found that CHD negatively impacts pathogen clearance and tissue repair, including in the respiratory tract, thereby increasing susceptibility to infection. In both humans and macaques the data indicated aberrant inflammation and reduced antiviral responses in the lung with chronic alcohol drinking. The study demonstrated that impaired response to pathogens involves CHD-induced transcriptional changes that then increase both susceptibility and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The researchers in the study employed luminex, scRNA sequencing, and flow cytometry to investigate the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral responses in bronchoalveolar lavage cell samples from humans with alcohol use disorder and rhesus macaques that engaged in chronic drinking.

The key findings of the study are

• The data study shows that in 6 humans and 11 macaques, the induction of key antiviral cytokines and growth factors was decreased with chronic ethanol consumption.

• Moreover, in macaques fewer differentially expressed genes mapped to Gene Ontology terms associated with antiviral immunity following 6 month of ethanol consumption while TLR signaling pathways were upregulated.

Researchers ended that “These data are indicative of aberrant inflammation and reduced antiviral responses in the lung with chronic alcohol drinking. Our study supports this conclusion with the demonstration that impaired response to pathogens involves CHD-induced transcriptional changes that then increase both susceptibility and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Reference: Sloan A. Lewis, Isaac R. Cinco et al; Chronic alcohol consumption dysregulates innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the lung et al 2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104812.