Abstract: life Systematic Review Repurposing Colchicine in Treating Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Chi-Hone Lien 1,† , Ming-Dar Lee 1,† , Shun-Long Weng 1,2 , Chao-Hsu Lin 1,3 , Lawrence Yu-Min Liu 1,2 , Yu-Lin Tai 1 , Wei-Te Lei 1,4 , Jui-Ming Liu 5 , Ya-Ning Huang 6 , Hsin Chi 2,6 , Nan-Chang Chiu 2,6 and Chien-Yu Lin 1,2, * 1 2 3 4 5 6



 * † Hsinchu MacKay Memorial Hospital, Hsinchu 30071, Taiwan; 4976@mmh.org.tw (C.-H.L.); 4554@mmh.org.tw (M.-D.L.); 4467@mmh.org.tw (S.-L.W.); 3099@mmh.org.tw (C.-H.L.); drlawrenceliu@gmail.com (L.Y.-M.L.); superlof@gmail.com (Y.-L.T.); lazyleisure@gmail.com (W.-T.L.) Department of Medicine, MacKay Medicine College, New Taipei City 25160, Taiwan; chi.4531@mmh.org.tw (H.C.); ncc88@mmh.org.tw (N.-C.C.) Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan Department of Urology, Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taoyuan 33004, Taiwan; mento1218@gmail.com Department of Pediatrics, MacKay Children’s Hospital, Taipei 10449, Taiwan; yvon1207@gmail.com Correspondence: mmhped.lin@gmail.com; Tel.: +886-3-6119595 These authors contributed equally to the work. Citation: Lien, C.-H.; Lee, M.-D.; Weng, S.-L.; Lin, C.-H.; Liu, L.Y.-M.; Tai, Y.-L.; Lei, W.-T.; Liu, J.-M.; Huang, Y.-N.; Chi, H.; et al. Repurposing Colchicine in Treating Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Life 2021, 11, 864. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11080864 Academic Editors: Dimitrios Paraskevis, Sotirios Tsiodras and Maria Yavropoulou Received: 30 June 2021 Accepted: 19 August 2021 Published: 23 August 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had caused huge health losses worldwide. Several drugs had been applied to treat patients with COVID-19, and repurposing colchicine had been proposed for its anti-inflammatory properties via several pathways. In this systematic review, we evaluated the effects of colchicine treatment. From inception to May 31, 2021, databases, including PubMed, EMbase, medRxiv, and Research Square were searched, and 11 studies were enrolled. A total of 17,205 COVID-19 patients with male predominance (62.9%) were analyzed. Patients with colchicine treatment had a significantly lower risk of mortality (odds ratio (OR): 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38–0.87, I2 : 72%; p < 0.01) and a non-significantly lower rate of mechanical ventilation (OR: 0.67, 95%CI: 0.39–1.15). The side effects were mild and not significantly different (OR: 2.03, 95%CI: 0.51–8.09). Subgroup analysis with randomized controlled trials showed no statistically significant difference in the mortality (OR: 0.80, 95%CI: 0.44–1.46, I2 : 33%; p = 0.22). In conclusion, our meta-analysis found that colchicine treatment was associated with a significantly lower risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19. However, this benefit was not observed in the subgroup analysis of randomized controlled trials. Further randomized controlled studies are required to confirm the potential benefits of colchicine treatment. Keywords: COVID-19; novel coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; colchicine; immunomodulation with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article..