KIMS Doctor’s Hypothesis on COVID-19 published in the Clinical Rheumatology Journal.

Dr. Sakir Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences published an interesting hypothesis on how Heparin might be effective in Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) in the Clinical Rheumatology journal. This hypothesis comes at a crucial time when clinicians around the world are realizing that COVID-19 causes organ damage and death via abnormal activation of the clotting system.

Dr. Sakir, in this manuscript, explains that beyond preventing clotting, heparin may also have other mechanisms of action such as preventing the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and activation of the RAAS (Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system) enzyme cascade. This RAAS system has been implicated in causing lung disease (acute respiratory distress syndrome: ARDS), heart problem (myocarditis) and kidney injury (acute renal failure) in patients with COVID-19.

The Clinical Rheumatology journal has tweeted about this significant paper on its official Twitter account @ClinRheumatol (picture enclosed).