The Importance of Nutraceuticals in COVID-19: What's the Role of Resveratrol?

Since COVID-19 has affected global public health, there has been an urgency to find a solution to limit both the number of infections, and the aggressiveness of the disease once infected. The main characteristic of this infection is represented by a strong alteration of the immune system which, day by day, increases the risk of mortality, and can lead to a multiorgan dysfunction. Because nutritional profile can influence patient's immunity, we focus our interest on resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound known for its immunomodulating and anti-inflammatory properties. We reviewed all the information concerning the different roles of resveratrol in COVID-19 pathophysiology using PubMed and Scopus as the main databases. Interestingly, we find out that resveratrol may exert its role through different mechanisms. In fact, it has antiviral activity inhibiting virus entrance in cells and viral replication. Resveratrol also improves autophagy and decreases pro-inflammatory agents expression acting as an anti-inflammatory agent. It regulates immune cell response and pro-inflammatory cytokines and prevents the onset of thrombotic events that usually occur in COVID-19 patients. Since resveratrol acts through different mechanisms, the effect could be enhanced, making a totally natural agent particularly effective as an adjuvant in anti COVID-19 therapy.

Important early prognostic laboratory indicators for COVID-19 mortality

Background COVID-19 has been marked as a highly pathogenic coronavirus of COVID-19 disease which has caused a pandemic into the human population, with a different course in different people, which contributed to the death of approximately over 5.02 million confirmed cases worldwide up till now. For this reason, it is quite important to have the earliest possible evaluation of laboratory-assisted indicators, especially for mortality risk prediction in developing countries, in addition to other clinical and imaging evaluations in order every physician to make the right medical decision. Methods In total, 277 patients of Infectious Diseases Hospital, UHC “Mother Teresa” were enrolled. All of them tested positive for COVID-19. We evaluated indicators such as d-dimer (N = 0–500 μg/L), lactate dehydrogenase LDH (N = 95–200 U/L) and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (control group = 1.7 ± 0.392) in two groups of patients, the first one of 144 patients who were discharged from the hospital and the second one of 133 patients who died. Results What we observed was that the results were different for every test we performed in each group. Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio was 8.69 ± 4.9 for the first group versus 14.7 ± 12.3 for the second one, P<0.05 (P = 0.013), LDH = 427 ± 241 versus 715 ± 347, P<0.05 (P = 0.0002), d-dimer = 1387 ± 763 versus 2650 ± 1322, P>0.05 (P = 0.28). Conclusions In addition to LDH as a prognostic factor, the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio was considered as a low cost examination for severe prognosis and mortality risk (P<0.05), which can also serve as an alert for primary services for patient hospitalization, especially in developing countries after his clinical and image evaluation.

Risk factors for poor outcome of patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Albania.

INTRODUCTION: The study aims to identify potential risk factors for the poor outcome of hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Albania. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective observational study on 133 consecutive hospitalized patients at "COVID 1" Hospital, University Hospital Center of Tirana. The study analyzed the correlation between potential risk factors and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: The study included 133 patients, 65.4% of the patients were male, age 60.46 ± 13.53 years. The mortality rate resulted in 22.6%. Univariate analysis revealed that early risk factors for mortality included: laboratory alterations on admission, such as lymphocytes count < 1.000/mm3 (OR = 3.30, 95% CI = 1.17-9.33), lactate dehydrogenase > 250 U/L (OR = 12.48, 95% CI = 1.62-95.78) and D dimer > 2 mg/L (OR = 4.72, 95% CI = 1.96-11.36); lung parenchymal involvement > 75% on chest computed tomography on admission (OR = 54.00, 95% CI = 11.89 - 245.11). Cox proportional hazard regression showed that independent risk factors for mortality were lung parenchymal involvement > 75% on chest computed tomography (HR = 8.31, 95%CI: 1.62-42.45) and occurrence of complications during hospital stay (OR = 10.28, 95% CI = 2.02-52.33). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of poor outcome can be predicted from the early stage of COVID 19 disease, using laboratory data and chest computed tomography. Among patients with COVID 19, lung parenchymal involvement and alterations > 75% on chest computed tomography on admission and laboratory findings, such as lymphocytopenia, and elevated lactate dehydrogenase and D dimer levels, turned out to be early risk factors for in-hospital mortality.