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

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.3390/jpm13071093", "ISSN": [ "2075-4426" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm13071093", "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>", "alternative-id": [ "jpm13071093" ], "author": [ { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8846-519X", "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" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Pantazopoulos", "given": "Ioannis", "sequence": "first" }, { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7634-4665", "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" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Chalkias", "given": "Athanasios", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece" } ], "family": "Miziou", "given": "Angeliki", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece" } ], "family": "Spanos", "given": "Michalis", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece" } ], "family": "Gerovasileiou", "given": "Efrosyni", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2885-4510", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Faculty of Nursing, University of Thessaly, 45550 Larissa, Greece" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Rouka", "given": "Erasmia", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9541-1010", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Gourgoulianis", "given": "Konstantinos", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Journal of Personalized Medicine", "container-title-short": "JPM", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": false, "domain": [] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 4 ] ], "date-time": "2023-07-04T05:32:18Z", "timestamp": 1688448738000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 4 ] ], "date-time": "2023-07-04T07:26:28Z", "timestamp": 1688455588000 }, "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 5 ] ], "date-time": "2023-07-05T04:24:25Z", "timestamp": 1688531065331 }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issue": "7", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 3 ] ] }, "journal-issue": { "issue": "7", "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7 ] ] } }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 3 ] ], "date-time": "2023-07-03T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1688342400000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/13/7/1093/pdf", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "1968", "original-title": [], "page": "1093", "prefix": "10.3390", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 3 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 7, 3 ] ] }, "publisher": "MDPI AG", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.1002/jmv.27643", "article-title": "The Emergence and Epidemic Characteristics of the Highly Mutated SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant", "author": "Tian", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "2376", "journal-title": "J. 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