Effect of an Immune-Boosting, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Food Supplement in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Prospective Randomized Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 disease is a serious global health problem. Few treatments have been shown to reduce mortality and accelerate time to recovery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of a food supplement (probiotics, prebiotics, vitamin D, zinc and selenium) in patients admitted with COVID-19. Methods: A prospective randomized non-blinded clinical trial was conducted in a sample of 162 hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 recruited over eight months. All patients received standard treatment, but the intervention group (n = 67) was given one food supplement stick daily during their admission. After collecting the study variables, a statistical analysis was performed comparing the intervention and control groups and a multivariate analysis controlling for variables that could act as confounding factors. Results: ROC curve analysis with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.840 (p < 0.001; 95%CI: 0.741–0.939) of the food supplement administration vs. recovery indicated good predictive ability. Moreover, the intervention group had a shorter duration of digestive symptoms compared with the control group: 2.6 ± 1.3 vs. 4.3 ± 2.2 days (p = 0.001); patients with non-severe disease on chest X-ray had shorter hospital stays: 8.1 ± 3.9 vs. 11.6 ± 7.4 days (p = 0.007). Conclusions: In this trial, the administration of a food supplement (Gasteel Plus®) was shown to be a protective factor in the group of patients with severe COVID-19 and allowed early recovery from digestive symptoms and a shorter hospital stay in patients with a normal–mild–moderate chest X-ray at admission (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04666116).

Role of Antioxidant Therapy in the Treatment and Prognosis of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Supplemental Table 1 presents the key data extracted from each included study. Studies included were published between 2020 and 2023, with 1 published in 2020 [ 19 ], 12 in 2021 [ [7] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [29] , [30] , [31] ], 10 in 2022 [ [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] ], and 2 in 2023 [ 42 , 43 ].…”

“…Geographic setting varied across the studies, with 9 studies from Iran [ [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] ], 3 from the United States [ 24 , 37 , 43 ], 2 from China [ 25 , 39 ], 2 from Tunisia [ 42 , 43 ], 2 from India [ 7 , 41 ] and the remaining 7, with 1 each from Egypt [ 26 ], Saudi Arabia [ 27 ], Israel [ 40 ], Pakistan [ 19 ], Australia [ 29 ], Spain [ 30 ], and Turkey [ 31 ].…”

“…The study populations were primarily in-patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and moderate disease severity, as seen in 19 studies [ [7] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , 35 , 36 , [38] , [39] , [40] ], whereas 6 focused on outpatients exhibiting acute symptoms [ 24 , 28 , 34 , 37 , 41 , 42 ]. Interestingly, 1 study assessed both inpatient and outpatient groups [ 43 ].…”

“…Vitamin C, either alone or in combination with standard of care treatment, was evaluated in 8 (32%) studies [ 19 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 33 , [36] , [37] , [38] ] ( Table 3 ), with outcomes including clinical improvement, time to discharge, number and duration of hospitalizations, inflammatory marker changes, mortality, and the need for mechanical ventilation. Table 4 outlines the studies that used a combination of antioxidants, minerals, and/or multivitamins as their intervention [ [7] , [20] , 21 , 24 , 27 , [30] , [31] , [32] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] ]. Eleven (44%) of the articles reported outcomes such as clinical improvement, supplemental oxygen use, duration of ICU admission, inflammatory marker changes, and mortality.…”

Study of the Relationship between Mucosal Immunity and Commensal Microbiota: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…To be exact, the direct communicative actions of the body’s mucosa modulate the commensal microbiota and also exert systemic immunomodulatory effects through signaling pathways. It is widely known that the immune balance of the body could be modified with oral administration or intranasal inhalation of probiotics or prebiotics, or fecal transplantation of intestinal flora, for the treatment of various immune-related diseases throughout the body, such as inflammatory bowel disease [ 12 ], asthma [ 13 ], chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [ 14 , 15 ], influenza [ 16 ], COVID-19 [ 17 ], hepatitis B [ 18 ], tuberculosis [ 19 ], neuroinflammation-related depression, anxiety disorders [ 20 ], etc. Yet, the therapeutic use of prebiotics is limited because they are living organisms.…”