| | | If you’re not getting vaccinated, at least take your zinc.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
HCQ is a zinc ionophore, allowing zinc to traverse a cell. Once zinc is in the cell, any viral intrusion is ineffective because it prevents viral replication.
I have yet to see any proper studies that measure the effect of zinc plus HCQ as a prophylactic but this study shows that zinc is beneficial. HCQ is well known ionophore plus is very safe, so it simply makes sense to use it.
The FDA withdrew HCQ’s emergency use authorization. I don’t know why as it is super safe.
Oh, it is very cheap and off-patent.
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Due to the importance of zinc in anti-viral defense and immune regulation in the respiratory tract mentioned in the previous sections, after the COVID-19 pandemic, more attention was paid to this vital trace element. Although not many studies have been done so far, some published results are interesting. It seems that zinc can attenuate the RNA synthesis of SARS-COV and have an inhibitory effect on replicating this virus [ 13]. Besides, one study showed that zinc could inhibit papain-like protease 2 (PLP2) of SAPS-COV [ 147]. This enzyme is very important in virus virulence. Since there are many similarities between the SARS-COV and SARS-COV2 genomes, it is necessary to study the above-mentioned results inSARS-COV2 infection carefully. Clinical studies in patients with COVID-19 have also reported interesting results. One study showed that serum zinc levels in patients with COVID-19 were significantly lower than in the healthy control group. In addition, the findings of this study showed that ARDS rate, length of hospital stay, and mortality increased in COVID-19 patients with zinc deficiency [ 148]. A study of pregnant women with COVID-19 showed that serum zinc levels in these patients were significantly reduced compared to the control group. Besides, an inverse correlation was reported between serum zinc and IL6 levels. There also appears to be an inverse correlation between zinc/copper ratio and disease severity in pregnant women with COVID-19 [ 149]. Another study showed that normal levels of zinc and selenoprotein P were associated with higher survival in patients with COVID-19 [ 150]. The results of some studies have shown that zinc can be effective in the treatment of COVID-19 and increase the effectiveness of drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. One study of 3473 patients with COVID-19 showed that a combination of zinc and ionophore hydroxychloroquine could reduce the in-hospital mortality rate by 24%; in contrast, zinc alone or ionophore alone could not reduce mortality [ 151]. One study showed that zinc sulfate, along with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, could reduce ICU admission, need for ventilation, and mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 [ 152]. Another study of outpatients with COVID-19 showed that treatment of these patients with low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combined with zinc could reduce hospitalization rates and mortality rates [ 153]. These promising clinical observations are justified by the role of zinc in anti-viral defense and immune regulation in the respiratory tract. However, another study showed that zinc sulfate did not have a significant effect on reducing in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19 [ 154].
In addition, one study also showed that zinc supplementation did not have a significant effect on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19, and the use of zinc supplementation with this drug did not cause a significant difference in parameters such as clinical recovery, need for mechanical ventilation, and mortality rates [ 155]. Therefore, more studies should be done in this field. It has recently been shown that the combination of nitazoxanide, ribavirin, ivermectin, and zinc supplementation has a significant effect on clearing the SARS-COV2 [ 156]. A limited number of studies have been performed on the importance of anti-viral zinc-dependent proteins in SARS-COV2 infection. One study showed that zinc-finger anti-viral protein (ZAP) could restrict SARS-COV2 by targeting CpG dinucleotides in the virus genome [ 15]. Therefore, further studies on the importance of ZAP and other zinc-dependent proteins mentioned in the previous section in COVID-19 are necessary. |
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