Ujjan Ikram Din, Khan Saeed, Nigar Roohi, Ahmed Hammad, Ahmad Sagheer, Khan Amjad
Department of Pathology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, Pakistan.
Department of Molecular Pathology, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.
Front Nutr. 2023 Jan 18;9:1023997. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.1023997. eCollection 2022.
Curcumin (CUR) and quercetin (QUE), two natural polyphenols, possess diverse biological activities including broad-spectrum antiviral, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. Both CUR and QUE have shown inhibition of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in assays.
In the present study we aimed to assess the possible treatment benefits of a combined curcumin and quercetin (CUR-QUE) oral supplement, alongside standard of care (SOC), in the COVID-19 infection.
This was an exploratory, pragmatic, open-label, randomized controlled clinical trial, conducted at the Department of Pathology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, PK. The study compared the treatment effect of an oral CUR-QUE supplement SOC vs. SOC alone, in the /mild to moderately symptomatic COVID-19 outpatients. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to CUR-QUE ( = 25) and control ( = 25) treatment groups. The CUR-QUE supplementation consisted of a daily intake of 168 mg curcumin and 260 mg quercetin, as two soft capsules, to be taken twice a day at home for 14 days.
After one-week of treatment, most of the patients in the CUR-QUE group showed an expedited clearance of the viral infection i.e., 18 (72.0%) vs. 6 (24.0%) patients in the control group tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal-oropharyngeal swab reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis ( = 0.0002). In addition, COVID-19-associated acute symptoms were also speedily resolved in the CUR-QUE treated patients, i.e., 10 (40.0%) vs. 4 (16.0%) patients in the control group ( = 0.061). The CUR-QUE supplementation therapy was well-tolerated by all 25 patients and no treatment-emergent effects or serious adverse events were reported.
The results revealed in this exploratory study suggest a possible therapeutic role of curcumin and quercetin in the of COVID-19. It is proposed that the two agents possibly acting in synergy, interfere the SARS-CoV-2 replication, and thus help a speedy recovery in the of COVID-19. Further research is highly encouraged.
Clinicaltrials.gov, Identifier NCT04603690.
姜黄素（CUR）和槲皮素（QUE）这两种天然多酚具有多种生物活性，包括广谱抗病毒、抗氧化和免疫调节作用。在试验中，CUR和QUE均已显示出对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的抑制作用。
在本研究中，我们旨在评估姜黄素和槲皮素联合（CUR-QUE）口服补充剂与标准治疗（SOC）相比，在治疗新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）感染中可能带来的益处。
这是一项在巴基斯坦贾姆肖罗利亚卡特医学与健康科学大学病理学系进行的探索性、实用性、开放标签、随机对照临床试验。该研究比较了口服CUR-QUE补充剂联合SOC与单独使用SOC对轻至中度症状COVID-19门诊患者的治疗效果。患者按1:1比例随机分为CUR-QUE组（n = 25）和对照组（n = 25）。CUR-QUE补充剂包括每日摄入168毫克姜黄素和260毫克槲皮素，装在两个软胶囊中，在家中每天服用两次，共14天。
治疗一周后，CUR-QUE组的大多数患者显示病毒感染清除加快，即鼻咽拭子逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）分析中，CUR-QUE组18例（72.0%）患者SARS-CoV-2检测呈阴性，而对照组为6例（24.0%）（P = 0.0002）。此外，CUR-QUE治疗的患者中与COVID-19相关的急性症状也迅速得到缓解，即CUR-QUE组10例（40.0%）患者，而对照组为4例（16.0%）（P = 0.061）。所有25例患者对CUR-QUE补充疗法耐受性良好，未报告治疗中出现的效应或严重不良事件。
本探索性研究结果表明姜黄素和槲皮素在COVID-19治疗中可能具有治疗作用。建议这两种药物可能协同作用，干扰SARS-CoV-2复制，从而有助于COVID-19患者快速康复。强烈鼓励进一步研究。
Clinicaltrials.gov，标识符NCT04603690。
