Abstract: Journal Pre-proof Association of Trace Element Status in COVID-19 Patients with Disease Severity Tamer Bego, Neven Meseldžić, Besim Prnjavorac, Lejla Prnjavorac, Damir Marjanović, Rui Azevedo, Edgar Pinto, Mary Duro, Cristina Couto, Agostinho Almeida PII: S0946-672X(22)00135-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2022.127055 Reference: JTEMB127055 To appear in: Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology Received date: 29 December 2021 Revised date: 4 July 2022 Accepted date: 2 August 2022 Please cite this article as: Tamer Bego, Neven Meseldžić, Besim Prnjavorac, Lejla Prnjavorac, Damir Marjanović, Rui Azevedo, Edgar Pinto, Mary Duro, Cristina Couto and Agostinho Almeida, Association of Trace Element Status in COVID-19 Patients with Disease Severity, Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, (2021) doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2022.127055 This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2021 Published by Elsevier. 1 Association of Trace Element Status in COVID-19 Patients with Disease Severity 2 Tamer Bego1*, Neven Meseldžić1, Besim Prnjavorac6,7, Lejla Prnjavorac7, Damir Marjanović8, Rui Azevedo2, 3 Edgar Pinto2,3, Mary Duro2,5, Cristina Couto2,4 and Agostinho Almeida2* Affiliations of the authors: 4 5 1 Diagnostics, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 7 University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry and Laboratory 2 LAQV/REQUIMTE, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal 8 Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, P.Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal 10 4 TOXRUN – Toxicology Research Unit, University Institute of Health Sciences, CESPU, CRL, 4585-116 Gandra, of 9 3 Portugal 11 Fernando Pessoa Health School, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal 13 6 University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Pharmacy, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 14 7 General Hospital Tešanj, 74260 Tešanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina 15 8 International Burch University, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina -p ro 12 5 16 * Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Tamer Bego, University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry and Laboratory Diagnostics, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, e-mail 18 address: tamer.bego@ffsa.unsa.ba; +387 33 586 188 re 17 lP 19 Abstract 21 Caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) evolves with clinical 22 symptoms that vary widely in severity, from mild symptoms to critical conditions, which can even result in the 23 patient's death. A critical aspect related to an individual response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is the competence of 24 the immune system, and it is well known that several trace elements are essential for an adequate immune re- 25 sponse and have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that are of particular importance in fighting infec- 26 tion. Thus, it..