Quercetin as a possible complementary agent for early-stage COVID-19: Concluding results of a randomized clinical trial

{ 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2023, 1, 14]], 'date-time': '2023-01-14T06:17:46Z', 'timestamp': 1673677066891}, 'reference-count': 32, 'publisher': 'Frontiers Media SA', 'license': [ { 'start': { 'date-parts': [[2023, 1, 13]], 'date-time': '2023-01-13T00:00:00Z', 'timestamp': 1673568000000}, 'content-version': 'vor', 'delay-in-days': 0, 'URL': 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'}], 'content-domain': {'domain': ['frontiersin.org'], 'crossmark-restriction': True}, 'abstract': '<jats:p><jats:bold>Background:</jats:bold> Quercetin, a natural polyphenol with demonstrated ' 'broad-spectrum antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, has been proposed as ' 'an adjuvant for early-stage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ' 'infection.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Objective:</jats:bold> To explore the possible ' 'therapeutic effect of quercetin in outpatients with early-stage mild to moderate symptoms of ' 'COVID-19.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Methods:</jats:bold> This was an open-label randomized ' 'controlled clinical trial conducted at the department of medicine, King Edward Medical ' 'University, Lahore, PK. Patients were randomized to receive either standard of care (SC) plus ' 'an oral quercetin supplement (500\xa0mg Quercetin Phytosome®, 1st week, TDS: 2nd\xa0week, ' 'BDS) (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 50, quercetin group) or SC alone ' '(<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 50, control ' 'group).</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Results:</jats:bold> After one week of treatment, patients ' 'in the quercetin group showed a speedy recovery from COVID-19 as compared to the control ' 'group, i.e., 34 patients (vs. 12 in the control group) tested negative for severe acute ' 'respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.0004), and ' '26 patients (vs. 12 in the control group) had their COVID-19-associated acute symptoms ' 'resolved (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.0051). Patients in the quercetin group also showed ' 'a significant fall in the serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) mean values i.e., from 406.56 ± ' '183.92 to 257.74 ± 110.73 U/L, <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = 0.0001. Quercetin was ' 'well-tolerated by all the 50 patients, and no side effects were ' 'reported.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Conclusion:</jats:bold> Our results, suggest the ' 'possible therapeutic role of quercetin in early-stage COVID-19, including speedy clearance of ' 'SARS-CoV-2, early resolution of the acute symptoms and modulation of the host’s ' 'hyperinflammatory response.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Clinical Trial ' 'Registration:</jats:bold><jats:ext-link>clinicaltrials.gov</jats:ext-link>, identifier ' 'NCT04861298</jats:p>', 'DOI': '10.3389/fphar.2022.1096853', 'type': 'journal-article', 'created': {'date-parts': [[2023, 1, 13]], 'date-time': '2023-01-13T05:32:47Z', 'timestamp': 1673587967000}, 'update-policy': 'http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/crossmark-policy', 'source': 'Crossref', 'is-referenced-by-count': 0, 'title': 'Quercetin as a possible complementary agent for early-stage COVID-19: Concluding results of a ' 'randomized clinical trial', 'prefix': '10.3389', 'volume': '13', 'author': [ {'given': 'Francesco', 'family': 'Di Pierro', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Amjad', 'family': 'Khan', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Somia', 'family': 'Iqtadar', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Sami Ullah', 'family': 'Mumtaz', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, { 'given': 'Muhammad Nabeel Akbar', 'family': 'Chaudhry', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Alexander', 'family': 'Bertuccioli', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Giuseppe', 'family': 'Derosa', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Pamela', 'family': 'Maffioli', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Stefano', 'family': 'Togni', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Antonella', 'family': 'Riva', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Pietro', 'family': 'Allegrini', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Martino', 'family': 'Recchia', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}, {'given': 'Nicola', 'family': 'Zerbinati', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []}], 'member': '1965', 'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2023, 1, 13]]}, 'reference': [ { 'key': 'B1', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'first-page': '1693', 'DOI': '10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.07.235', 'article-title': 'Structural stability of SARS-CoV-2 3CL pro and identification of ' 'quercetin as an inhibitor by experimental screening', 'volume': '164', 'author': 'Abian', 'year': '2020', 'journal-title': 'Int. 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