A Hypertonic Seawater Nasal Irrigation Solution Containing Algal and Herbal Natural Ingredients Reduces Viral Load and SARS-CoV-2 Detection Time in the Nasal Cavity

{ 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2023, 7, 5]], 'date-time': '2023-07-05T04:24:25Z', 'timestamp': 1688531065331}, 'reference-count': 39, 'publisher': 'MDPI AG', 'issue': '7', 'license': [ { 'start': { 'date-parts': [[2023, 7, 3]], 'date-time': '2023-07-03T00:00:00Z', 'timestamp': 1688342400000}, 'content-version': 'vor', 'delay-in-days': 0, 'URL': 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'}], 'content-domain': {'domain': [], 'crossmark-restriction': False}, 'abstract': '<jats:p>Nasal irrigation is thought to decrease the viral load present in the nasal cavity. ' 'Our aim was to assess the effect of a hypertonic seawater solution [with algal and herbal ' 'natural ingredients (Sinomarin®)] on the viral load of nasopharynx in patients hospitalized ' 'with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. We conducted a prospective, randomized, controlled trial from ' 'June 2022 to December 2022. We allocated 56 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia into two groups ' '(28 in each group)—the hypertonic seawater group [nasal irrigations with a hypertonic ' 'seawater solution (Sinomarin®) every 4 h for 16 h per day, for two consecutive days] and the ' 'control group (no nasal irrigations). A second nasopharyngeal swab was collected 48 h after ' 'the baseline nasopharyngeal swab (8 h after the last wash in the hypertonic seawater group) ' 'to estimate the SARS-CoV-2 viral load as determined by cycle threshold (Ct) values. In the ' 'hypertonic seawater group, the mean Ct values significantly increased two days after the ' 'initial measurement [ΔCt 48−0 h = 3.86 ± 3.03 cycles, p &lt; 0.001 (95%CI: 2.69 to 5.04)]. No ' 'significant differences in the Ct values were observed in the control group [ΔCt 48−0 h = ' '−0.14 ± 4.29, p = 0.866 (95%CI: −1.80 to −1.52)]. At follow-up, 17 patients from the ' 'hypertonic seawater group had negative test results compared to only 9 patients from the ' 'control group (p = 0.03). Nasal irrigations with a hypertonic seawater solution containing ' 'algal and herbal natural ingredients significantly decreased nasopharyngeal viral load and ' 'the detection time of SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal cavity.</jats:p>', 'DOI': '10.3390/jpm13071093', 'type': 'journal-article', 'created': {'date-parts': [[2023, 7, 4]], 'date-time': '2023-07-04T05:32:18Z', 'timestamp': 1688448738000}, 'page': '1093', 'source': 'Crossref', 'is-referenced-by-count': 0, 'title': 'A Hypertonic Seawater Nasal Irrigation Solution Containing Algal and Herbal Natural Ingredients ' 'Reduces Viral Load and SARS-CoV-2 Detection Time in the Nasal Cavity', 'prefix': '10.3390', 'volume': '13', 'author': [ { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8846-519X', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Ioannis', 'family': 'Pantazopoulos', 'sequence': 'first', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}, { 'name': 'Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}]}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7634-4665', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Athanasios', 'family': 'Chalkias', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Anaesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, University ' 'of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}, { 'name': 'Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, ' 'University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, ' 'Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA'}, {'name': 'Outcomes Research Consortium, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA'}]}, { 'given': 'Angeliki', 'family': 'Miziou', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}]}, { 'given': 'Michalis', 'family': 'Spanos', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}]}, { 'given': 'Efrosyni', 'family': 'Gerovasileiou', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}]}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2885-4510', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Erasmia', 'family': 'Rouka', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Faculty of Nursing, University of Thessaly, 45550 Larissa, ' 'Greece'}]}, { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9541-1010', 'authenticated-orcid': False, 'given': 'Konstantinos', 'family': 'Gourgoulianis', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': [ { 'name': 'Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, ' 'University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece'}]}], 'member': '1968', 'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2023, 7, 3]]}, 'reference': [ { 'key': 'ref_1', 'doi-asserted-by': 'crossref', 'first-page': '2376', 'DOI': '10.1002/jmv.27643', 'article-title': 'The Emergence and Epidemic Characteristics of the Highly Mutated ' 'SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant', 'volume': '94', 'author': 'Tian', 'year': '2022', 'journal-title': 'J. 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