Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet Association with Serum Inflammatory Factors Stress Oxidative and Appetite in COVID-19 Patients.

Background and Objectives: The Mediterranean diet's bioactive components are suggested to strengthen the immune system and to exert anti-inflammatory actions. This study investigated the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet with serum inflammatory factors, total antioxidant capacity, appetite, and symptoms of COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 600 Iranian COVID-19 patients selected by a simple random method. The ten-item Mediterranean diet adherence questionnaire was used to assess diet adherence. At the beginning of the study, 5 cc of blood was taken from all patients for measurement of serum interleukin 1ß) IL-1ß), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), malondialdehyde (MDA), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). A human ELISA kit with serial number 950.090.096 produced by the Diaclone Company was used to test this cytokine using the sandwich ELISA method. Results: One hundred and five patients presented a high adherence and 495 patients presented a low adherence to the Mediterranean diet. The incidence of fever, cough, diarrhea, taste changes, and pneumonia severity index were significantly lower in patients who adhered to the Mediterranean diet more than other patients. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor (5.7 ± 2.1 vs. 6.9 ± 2.8 p = 0.02), interleukin 1 beta (3.2 ± 0.02 vs. 4.9 ± 0.01 p = 0.02), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (17.08 ± 4.2 vs. 19.8 ± 2.5 p = 0.03), and malondialdehyde (5.7 ± 0.2 vs. 6.2 ± 0.3 p = 0.02) were significantly lower in patients who adhered more to the Mediterranean diet than other patients. Conclusion: The Mediterranean diet can improve the symptoms and elevated serum inflammatory factors in COVID-19 patients, so clinical trial studies are suggested to confirm this effect.

The effect of glutamine supplementation on serum levels of some inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and appetite in COVID-19 patients: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is seen in COVID-19 patients, and reducing malnutrition with appropriate therapies may improve these patients' health. This case-control study aimed to assess and compare serum levels of some inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and appetite in COVID-19 patients with respiratory infections that receive glutamine treatment with a control group. METHODS: In this study, patients who consented to use glutamine were considered as the case group and other patients who did not use glutamine were considered as a control group. Two hundred twenty-two COVID-19 patients (51.2 ± 6.7) using L-Glutamine and 230 COVID-19 patients (51.3 ± 8.2) with similar age, gender, and clinical status, as the control group, were included in the study. For 5 days, the case group consumed 10 g of glutamine supplement three times per day. At the end of the 5 days, blood samples were taken again to test for serum levels of IL1ß, tumor necrosis factor-α, malondialdehyde, and total antioxidant capacity, then all data were analyzed. RESULTS: Serum levels of ß-1 interleukin, tumor necrosis factor-α and hs-CRP were significantly reduced with five days of glutamine supplementation (p < 0.05), and patients' appetite during 5 days of glutamine supplementation compared with the control group had a significant increase (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Glutamine supplementation in COVID-19 patients with respiratory infection significantly reduces serum levels of interleukin-1 ß, hs-CRP, and tumor necrosis factor-α and significantly increases appetite, so glutamine supplementation may be useful for COVID-19 patients in the hospital.

TMEM263: a novel candidate gene implicated in human autosomal recessive severe lethal skeletal dysplasia.

INTRODUCTION: Skeletal dysplasia is a common, clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder in the human population. An increasing number of different genes are being identified causing this disorder. We used whole exome sequencing (WES) for detection of skeletal dysplasia causing mutation in a fetus affected to severe lethal skeletal dysplasia. PATIENT: Fetus was assessed by ultrasonography in second trimester of pregnancy. He suffers from severe rhizomelic dysplasia and also pathologic shortening of ribs. WES was applied to finding of causal mutation. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict mutation impact. RESULTS: Whole exome sequencing (WES) identified a homozygous frameshift mutation in the TMEM263 gene in a fetus with severe lethal skeletal dysplasia. Mutations of this gene have been previously identified in dwarf chickens, but this is the first report of involvement of this gene in human skeletal dysplasia. This gene plays a key role in the growth hormone signaling pathway. CONCLUSION: TMEM263 can be considered as a new gene responsible for skeletal dysplasia. Given the complications observed in the affected fetus, the mutation of this gene appears to produce much more intense complications than that found in chickens and is likely to play a more important role in bone development in human.