RESUMO
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is acknowledged that vulnerable people can suffer from mortal complications of COVID-19. Therefore, strengthening the immune system particularly in the most fragile people could help to protect them from infection. First, general nutritional status and food consumption patterns of everyone affect the effectiveness of each immune system. The effects of nutrition could impact the level of intestinal and genital microbiota, the adaptive immune system, and the innate immune system. Indeed, immune system cells and mediators, which are crucial to inflammatory reaction, are in the structures of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins and are activated through vitamins (vit) and minerals. Therefore, the association of malnutrition and infection could damage the immune response, reducing the immune cells and amplifying inflammatory mediators. Both amount and type of dietary fat impact on cytokine biology, that consequently assumes a crucial role in inflammatory disease. This review explores the power of nutrition in the immune response against COVID-19 infection, since a specific diet could modify the cytokine storm during the infection phase. This can be of vital importance in the most vulnerable subjects such as pregnant women or cancer patients to whom we have deemed it necessary to dedicate personalized indications.
