Nebivolol therapy improves QTc and QTcd parameters in heart failure patients

The Potential Benefit of Beta-Blockers for the Management of COVID-19 Protocol Therapy-Induced QT Prolongation: A Literature Review

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic in March 2020. Unfortunately, there are still no approved drugs for either the treatment or the prevention of COVID-19. Many studies have focused on repurposing established antimalarial therapies, especially those that showed prior efficacy against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, against COVID-19 combined with azithromycin. These classes of drugs potentially induce prolongation of the QT interval, which might lead to lethal arrhythmia. Beta-blockers, as a β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) antagonist, can prevent an increase in the sympathetic tone, which is the most important arrhythmia trigger. In this literature review, we aimed to find the effect of administering azithromycin, chloroquine, and hydroxychloroquine on cardiac rhythm disorders and our findings show that bisoprolol, as a cardio-selective beta-blocker, is effective for the management of the QT (i.e., the start of the Q wave to the end of the T wave) interval prolongation in COVID-19 patients.

Protective effects of nebivolol from oxidative stress to prevent hypertension-related target organ damage

Hypertension is one of the leading risk factors for morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and renal impairment. It also leads to target organ damage (TOD), which worsens organ function and the patient's clinical status. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated oxidative stress may contribute significantly to TOD in patients with hypertension. NO (nitric oxide) is a paracrine factor derived from endothelial cells that has been shown to alleviate ROS-mediated oxidative damage. Nebivolol is a third-generation β-blocker with vasodilator activity, both actions contributing to decreased blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Its vasodilatory function is mediated by the endothelial l-arginine NO pathway. Nebivolol increases the bioavailability of NO in the vasculature. Its efficacy and safety profile is comparable to other commonly used antihypertensive agents. In this article, we review the current literature to understand TOD secondary to oxidative stress in patients with hypertension and the role of nebivolol in its prevention. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which nebivolol reduces ROS-mediated TOD will not only help in the development of targeted therapies but may also improve health outcomes in hypertensive patients.