Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Northern Border University, Rafha 91911, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Northern Border University, Arar 91431, Saudi Arabia.
Nutrients. 2022 Mar 14;14(6):1227. doi: 10.3390/nu14061227.
Zinc is an essential nutrient for human health; it is involved in the catalytic, structural, and regulatory functions of the human cellular system. Different compositions of zinc, as well as its pharmaceutically acceptable salts, are available on the market. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of zinc in combating COVID-19. It has been determined that zinc prevents the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells by lowering the expression of ACE-2 receptors and inhibiting the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of SARS-CoV-2. Zinc also prevents the cytokine storm that takes place after the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the cell, via its anti-inflammatory activity. The authors believe that no study has yet been published that has reviewed the trends, inventions, and patent literature of zinc compositions to treat/prevent COVID-19. Accordingly, this review has been written in order to fill this gap in the literature. The information about the clinical studies and the published patents/patent applications was retrieved from different databases. This review covers patent literature on zinc compositions up to 31 January 2022. Many important patents/patent applications for zinc-based compositions filed by innovative universities and industries were identified. The patent literature revealed zinc compositions in combination with zinc ionophores, antioxidants, antivirals, antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine, heparin, ivermectin, and copper. Most of these studies were supported by clinical trials. The patent literature supports the potential of zinc and its pharmaceutical compositions as possible treatments for COVID-19. The authors believe that countless zinc-based compositions are still unexplored, and there is an immense opportunity to evaluate a considerable number of the zinc-based compositions for use against COVID-19.
锌是人体健康必需的营养物质；它参与人体细胞系统的催化、结构和调节功能。市场上有不同组成的锌以及其药用可接受的盐。最近的研究表明锌在抗击 COVID-19 中的作用。已经确定锌通过降低 ACE-2 受体的表达并抑制 SARS-CoV-2 的 RNA 依赖性 RNA 聚合酶来阻止 SARS-CoV-2 进入细胞。锌还通过其抗炎活性防止 SARS-CoV-2 进入细胞后发生细胞因子风暴。作者认为，目前还没有发表任何综述来回顾锌组合物治疗/预防 COVID-19 的趋势、发明和专利文献。因此，撰写了这篇综述来填补文献中的这一空白。从不同的数据库中检索了有关临床研究和已发表专利/专利申请的信息。这篇综述涵盖了截至 2022 年 1 月 31 日的锌组合物专利文献。确定了许多创新型大学和行业提交的具有重要意义的基于锌的组合物的专利/专利申请。专利文献揭示了锌组合物与锌离子载体、抗氧化剂、抗病毒药物、抗生素、羟氯喹、肝素、伊维菌素和铜的联合应用。这些研究大多得到了临床试验的支持。专利文献支持锌及其药物组合物作为 COVID-19 潜在治疗方法的潜力。作者认为，仍有无数基于锌的组合物尚未被探索，有大量机会评估相当数量的基于锌的组合物用于对抗 COVID-19。
