Poushalee Dey, Presidency University, Kolkata
Zinc is one of the most important essential trace minerals in the human body. Its deficiency causes hypozincemia. Previously, some studies reported the positive effects of zinc and selenium supplements in the prevention and treatment of viral infections. A recent study evaluated the hypothesis of zinc and selenium deficiency in Covid – 19 patients. In response, the levels of Se transporter selenoprotein P (SELENOP) were also assessed.
Blood samples were collected from a group of patients and a TXRF (Total Reflection X – Ray Fluorescence) analysis was carried out to quantitatively estimate zinc concentrations in the serum. Results were compared to a cohort of healthy adults whose data was obtained from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Zinc concentration was found to be relatively low in serum samples of Covid – 19 patients compared to that of healthy European adults. Average zinc concentrations were particularly less in the samples from non-survivors compared to survivors of the disease. For selenium, it was observed that the concentration of both selenium and SELENOP increased in survivors, but no increase was seen in non – survivors. In fact, SELENOP concentrations reduced drastically with time in samples from non – survivors. However, combined zinc and selenium or zinc and SELENOP deficit were seen to be a rare event. These findings indicate a time-dependent change of a particular set of trace elements as biomarkers in COVID – 19 diagnosis.
The results also suggest that the virus may have a strong disordering action on the fundamental metabolic pathway of these two essential trace elements. There may also be a couple of underlying factors like age, malnutrition, hypoxaemia and/or co-morbidities, influencing the role of these trace elements in unfolding the course of this disease. Deficiency of these elements also creates a negative impact on the immune system, triggering an inflammatory response and inherently hampering the activity of immune cells. Previous studies have portrayed that a severe deficiency of zinc can also enhance the risk of organ failure and morbidity in the ICU. If this also applies to COVID – 19, administration of supplements containing a combination of zinc and selenium in reasonable concentrations can be considered as a safe promising therapeutic remedy.
Also read: Can SARS-Cov-2 be neutralized potently, using engineered ACE2 receptor traps?
References
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