Promising Effects of 3-Month Period of Quercetin Phytosome® Supplementation in the Prevention of Symptomatic COVID-19 Disease in Healthcare Workers: A Pilot Study
Mariangela Rondanelli, Simone Perna, Clara Gasparri, Giovanna Petrangolini, Pietro Allegrini, Alessandro Cavioni, Milena Anna Faliva, Francesca Mansueto, Zaira Patelli, Gabriella Peroni, Alice Tartara, Antonella Riva
Life, doi:10.3390/life12010066
Quercetin, for its crucial properties, fulfills the need for a multifactor action that is useful for the potential counterbalance of a COVID-19 infection. Given this background, the aim of the study was to evaluate the potential effect of 3 months' supplementation with Quercetin Phytosome ® (250 mg twice a day) as prevention against symptomatic COVID-19. In total, 120 subjects were enrolled (males, 63; females, 57; age 49 ± 12), with 60 in the supplementation group and 60 in the placebo group. No significant differences were detected between groups in terms of gender, smoking, and chronic disease. Subjects underwent rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests every 3 weeks. During our study, 5 subjects had COVID-19, 1 out of 60 subjects in the quercetin group and 4 out of 60 in the control group. Complete clinical remission was recorded at 7 and 15 days in the quercetin and placebo groups, respectively. Analysis showed that, at 5 months, the COVID free survival function (risk of infection) was 99.8% in subjects under quercetin supplementation and 96.5% in control group. As shown by the value of EXP(B), those who had taken the supplement had a protection factor of 14% more to not contract the COVID-19 infection than that of those who had taken a placebo. Obtained results are encouraging, but further studies are required to add quercetin as regular prophylaxis.
Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University (approval number: 1222/01022021). Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
References
Arslan, Ucuncu Ergun, Topuz, Yilmaz Semerci, Suner et al., Synergistic Effect of Quercetin and Vitamin C Against COVID-19: Is a Possible Guard for Front Liners, SSRN Electron. J,
doi:10.2139/ssrn.3682517Aucoin, Cooley, Saunders, Cardozo, Remy et al., The effect of quercetin on the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 and other respiratory tract infections in humans: A rapid review, Adv. Integr. Med,
doi:10.1016/j.aimed.2020.07.007Brendler, Al-Harrasi, Bauer, Gafner, Hardy et al., Botanical drugs and supplements affecting the immune response in the time of COVID-19: Implications for research and clinical practice, Phytother. Res,
doi:10.1002/ptr.7008Cesarone, Belcaro, Hu, Dugall, Hosoi et al., Supplementary prevention and management of asthma with quercetin phytosome: A pilot registry, Minerva Med,
doi:10.23736/S0026-4806.19.06319-5Derosa, Maffioli, D'angelo, Di Pierro, A role for quercetin in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Phytother. Res,
doi:10.1002/ptr.6887Di Pede, Bresciani, Calani, Petrangolini, Riva et al., The human microbial metabolism of quercetin in different formulations: An in vitro evaluation, Foods,
doi:10.3390/foods9081121Di Pierro, Derosa, Maffioli, Bertuccioli, Togni et al., Possible Therapeutic Effects of Adjuvant Quercetin Supplementation Against Early-Stage COVID-19 Infection: A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled, and Open-Label Study, Int. J. Gen. Med,
doi:10.2147/IJGM.S318720Di Pierro, Iqtadar, Khan, Ullah Mumtaz, Masud Chaudhry et al., Potential Clinical Benefits of Quercetin in the Early Stage of COVID-19: Results of a Second, Pilot, Randomized, Controlled and Open-Label Clinical Trial, Int. J. Gen. Med,
doi:10.2147/IJGM.S318949Di Pierro, Khan, Bertuccioli, Maffioli, Derosa et al., Quercetin Phytosome®as a potential candidate for managing COVID-19, Minerva Gastroenterol,
doi:10.23736/S2724-5985.20.02771-3Dziadzko, Novotny, Sloan, Gajic, Herasevich et al., Multicenter derivation and validation of an early warning score for acute respiratory failure or death in the hospital, Crit. Care,
doi:10.1186/s13054-018-2194-7Glinsky, Tripartite Combination of Candidate Pandemic Mitigation Agents: Vitamin D, Quercetin, and Estradiol Manifest Properties of Medicinal Agents for Targeted Mitigation of the COVID-19 Pandemic Defined by Genomics-Guided Tracing of SARS-CoV-2 Targets in Human, Biomedicines,
doi:10.3390/biomedicines8050129Gralinski, Baric, Molecular pathology of emerging coronavirus infections, J. Pathol,
doi:10.1002/path.4454Khaerunnisa, Kurniawan, Awaluddin, Suhartati, Soetjipto, Potential Inhibitor of COVID-19 Main Protease (Mpro) From Several Medicinal Plant Compounds by Molecular Docking Study, Preprints
Lee, Yu, Trimpert, Benthani, Mairhofer et al., Virus-induced senescence is a driver and therapeutic target in COVID-19, Nature,
doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03995-1Li, Fan, Lai, Han, Li et al., Coronavirus infections and immune responses, J. Med. Virol,
doi:10.1002/jmv.25685Liu, Raghuvanshi, Ceylan, Bolling, Quercetin and Its Metabolites Inhibit Recombinant Human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) Activity, J. Agric. Food Chem,
doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.0c05064Majumder, Minko, Recent Developments on Therapeutic and Diagnostic Approaches for COVID-19, AAPS J
Margolin, Luchins, Margolin, Margolin, Lefkowitz, 20-Week Study of Clinical Outcomes of Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Prophylaxis and Treatment, J. Evid.-Based Integr. Med,
doi:10.1177/2515690X211026193Pawar, Pal, Molecular and functional resemblance of dexamethasone and quercetin: A paradigm worth exploring in dexamethasone-nonresponsive COVID-19 patients, Phytother. Res,
doi:10.1002/ptr.6886Riva, Corti, Belcaro, Cesarone, Dugall et al., Interaction study between antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants, diabetic therapy and a novel delivery form of quercetin, Minerva Cardioangiol,
doi:10.23736/S0026-4725.18.04795-3Riva, Ronchi, Petrangolini, Bosisio, Allegrini, Improved Oral Absorption of Quercetin from Quercetin Phytosome®, a New Delivery System Based on Food Grade Lecithin, Eur. J. Drug Metab. Pharmacokinet,
doi:10.1007/s13318-018-0517-3Smith, Prytherch, Meredith, Schmidt, Featherstone, The ability of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) to discriminate patients at risk of early cardiac arrest, unanticipated intensive care unit admission, and death, Resuscitation,
doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2012.12.016Smith, Smith, Repurposing Therapeutics for COVID-19: Supercomputer-Based Docking to the SARS-CoV-2 Viral Spike Protein and Viral Spike Protein-Human ACE2 Interface
{ 'indexed': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 8]], 'date-time': '2022-01-08T06:04:03Z', 'timestamp': 1641621843811},
'reference-count': 29,
'publisher': 'MDPI AG',
'issue': '1',
'license': [ { 'start': { 'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 4]],
'date-time': '2022-01-04T00:00:00Z',
'timestamp': 1641254400000},
'content-version': 'vor',
'delay-in-days': 0,
'URL': 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'}],
'content-domain': {'domain': [], 'crossmark-restriction': False},
'short-container-title': ['Life'],
'abstract': '<jats:p>Quercetin, for its crucial properties, fulfills the need for a multifactor action '
'that is useful for the potential counterbalance of a COVID-19 infection. Given this '
'background, the aim of the study was to evaluate the potential effect of 3 months’ '
'supplementation with Quercetin Phytosome® (250 mg twice a day) as prevention against '
'symptomatic COVID-19. In total, 120 subjects were enrolled (males, 63; females, 57; age 49 ± '
'12), with 60 in the supplementation group and 60 in the placebo group. No significant '
'differences were detected between groups in terms of gender, smoking, and chronic disease. '
'Subjects underwent rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests every 3 weeks. During our study, 5 '
'subjects had COVID-19, 1 out of 60 subjects in the quercetin group and 4 out of 60 in the '
'control group. Complete clinical remission was recorded at 7 and 15 days in the quercetin and '
'placebo groups, respectively. Analysis showed that, at 5 months, the COVID free survival '
'function (risk of infection) was 99.8% in subjects under quercetin supplementation and 96.5% '
'in control group. As shown by the value of EXP(B), those who had taken the supplement had a '
'protection factor of 14% more to not contract the COVID-19 infection than that of those who '
'had taken a placebo. Obtained results are encouraging, but further studies are required to '
'add quercetin as regular prophylaxis.</jats:p>',
'DOI': '10.3390/life12010066',
'type': 'journal-article',
'created': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 7]], 'date-time': '2022-01-07T06:14:02Z', 'timestamp': 1641536042000},
'page': '66',
'source': 'Crossref',
'is-referenced-by-count': 0,
'title': [ 'Promising Effects of 3-Month Period of Quercetin Phytosome® Supplementation in the Prevention '
'of Symptomatic COVID-19 Disease in Healthcare Workers: A Pilot Study'],
'prefix': '10.3390',
'volume': '12',
'author': [ { 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8336-4851',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Mariangela',
'family': 'Rondanelli',
'sequence': 'first',
'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2720-1473',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Simone',
'family': 'Perna',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1088-6648',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Clara',
'family': 'Gasparri',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6681-7329',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Giovanna',
'family': 'Petrangolini',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4380-9577',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Pietro',
'family': 'Allegrini',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []},
{'given': 'Alessandro', 'family': 'Cavioni', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []},
{'given': 'Milena Anna', 'family': 'Faliva', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []},
{'given': 'Francesca', 'family': 'Mansueto', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []},
{'given': 'Zaira', 'family': 'Patelli', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1632-1787',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Gabriella',
'family': 'Peroni',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []},
{'given': 'Alice', 'family': 'Tartara', 'sequence': 'additional', 'affiliation': []},
{ 'ORCID': 'http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2819-943X',
'authenticated-orcid': False,
'given': 'Antonella',
'family': 'Riva',
'sequence': 'additional',
'affiliation': []}],
'member': '1968',
'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 4]]},
'reference': [ { 'key': 'ref1',
'unstructured': 'Coronavirus Disease '
'(COVID-19)https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019?adgroupsurvey=%7Badgroupsurvey%7D&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImZnf_puL9AIVFNN3Ch0FJgp2EAAYASAAEgIGlfD_BwE'},
{'key': 'ref2', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1038/s41586-021-03995-1'},
{'key': 'ref3', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1038/s41418-020-0530-3'},
{'key': 'ref4', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1016/j.jpha.2020.03.001'},
{'key': 'ref5', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1002/jmv.25685'},
{'key': 'ref6', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1002/path.4454'},
{'key': 'ref7', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1208/s12248-020-00532-2'},
{'key': 'ref8', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1002/ptr.7008'},
{'key': 'ref9', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1016/j.aimed.2020.07.007'},
{'key': 'ref10', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1016/j.cbi.2020.109211'},
{'key': 'ref11', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.23736/S0026-4806.18.05681-1'},
{'key': 'ref12', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.23736/S0026-4806.19.06319-5'},
{'key': 'ref13', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1002/ptr.6886'},
{ 'key': 'ref14',
'series-title': 'Repurposing Therapeutics for COVID-19: Supercomputer-Based Docking to '
'the SARS-CoV-2 Viral Spike Protein and Viral Spike Protein-Human ACE2 '
'Interface',
'author': 'Smith',
'year': '2020'},
{ 'key': 'ref15',
'first-page': '2020030226',
'article-title': 'Potential Inhibitor of COVID-19 Main Protease (Mpro) From Several '
'Medicinal Plant Compounds by Molecular Docking Study',
'volume': '2020',
'author': 'Khaerunnisa',
'year': '2020',
'journal-title': 'Preprints'},
{'key': 'ref16', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.3390/biomedicines8050129'},
{'key': 'ref17', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1021/acs.jafc.0c05064'},
{'key': 'ref18', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.2139/ssrn.3682517'},
{'key': 'ref19', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.2147/IJGM.S318949'},
{'key': 'ref20', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.2147/IJGM.S318720'},
{'key': 'ref21', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1186/s13054-018-2194-7'},
{ 'key': 'ref22',
'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher',
'DOI': '10.1016/j.resuscitation.2012.12.016'},
{'key': 'ref23', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1177/2515690X211026193'},
{'key': 'ref24', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1016/j.bcab.2021.102179'},
{'key': 'ref25', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1002/ptr.6887'},
{'key': 'ref26', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.23736/S2724-5985.20.02771-3'},
{'key': 'ref27', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.1007/s13318-018-0517-3'},
{'key': 'ref28', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.23736/S0026-4725.18.04795-3'},
{'key': 'ref29', 'doi-asserted-by': 'publisher', 'DOI': '10.3390/foods9081121'}],
'container-title': ['Life'],
'original-title': [],
'language': 'en',
'link': [ { 'URL': 'https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/1/66/pdf',
'content-type': 'unspecified',
'content-version': 'vor',
'intended-application': 'similarity-checking'}],
'deposited': { 'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 7]],
'date-time': '2022-01-07T06:55:55Z',
'timestamp': 1641538555000},
'score': 1,
'subtitle': [],
'short-title': [],
'issued': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 4]]},
'references-count': 29,
'journal-issue': {'issue': '1', 'published-online': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1]]}},
'alternative-id': ['life12010066'],
'URL': 'http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12010066',
'relation': {},
'ISSN': ['2075-1729'],
'issn-type': [{'value': '2075-1729', 'type': 'electronic'}],
'subject': [ 'Paleontology', 'Space and Planetary Science',
'General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology',
'Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics'],
'published': {'date-parts': [[2022, 1, 4]]}}
