Common Liver Treatment Shows Potential to Reduce Hospital SARS-CoV-2 Cases
Published: 1 August 2025
New research suggests that ursodeoxycholic acid, a cheap liver drug, could reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in hospitals by 17%. Using computer simulations, scientists modelled how the drug lowers ACE2 receptors that the virus uses to infect cells, potentially protecting vulnerable patients during outbreaks.
A commonly used drug could potentially reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in hospital wards, according to a new study by researchers at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.
Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a cheaply available drug used for the treatment of liver disease. Previous research has shown that taking UDCA lowers the concentration in cells of the protein ACE2, the primary receptor used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter cells and cause infection (Brevini et al., Nature 2022).
While the clinical consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection are reduced compared to the early days of the pandemic, infections in hospital remain a problem for vulnerable patients. Furthermore, measures to prevent transmission in hospital are costly, reducing the capacity of hospitals to provide care.
The new study, published online in PLoS Computational Biology, explores the potential for UDCA to be employed to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in hospitals. The authors combined a computational approach, simulating outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals, with a mathematical model describing the impact of UDCA upon ACE2 expression and the subsequent risk of infection. An approach in which a short course of treatment with UDCA was given to everyone in a ward following the detection of a case of SARS-CoV-2 reduced subsequent infections among patients by close to 17%. Between 1000 and 2000 patient days of treatment with UDCA were required for each case of transmission prevented (where one patient day represents one patient receiving treatment for one day).
The use of computer simulation to test novel approaches to treatment provides a cost effective and safe approach to trialling ideas ahead of any potential implementation in a hospital. While UDCA has been licensed in the UK for treating liver conditions, it is not currently prescribed as a means of preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. The authors do not recommend the use of UDCA in any situation except under the explicit guidance of a qualified physician.
Congratulations go to Lauren Stewart, whose MSc Bioinformatics research project, hosted in the CVR, provided the first draft of this manuscript. Lauren was awarded with the course prize for best research project for her contribution to this paper. This work was conducted in collaboration with Teresa Brevini and Fotios Sampaziotis at the University of Cambridge, and with Stephanie Evans at UKHSA. Funding was provided by the UK Medical Research Council.
First published: 1 August 2025
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