Echinacea Purpurea For the Long-Term Prevention of Viral Respiratory Tract Infections During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Randomized, Open, Controlled, Exploratory Clinical Study.
| Autor: | Kolev E; Clinical Research Center DCC Convex Ltd., Sofia, Bulgaria., Mircheva L; Clinical Research Center DCC Convex Ltd., Sofia, Bulgaria., Edwards MR; Virtus Respiratory Research Limited, London Bioscience Innovation Centre, London, United Kingdom.; National Heart Lung Institute, Imperial College London St Marys Campus, London, United Kingdom., Johnston SL; Virtus Respiratory Research Limited, London Bioscience Innovation Centre, London, United Kingdom.; National Heart Lung Institute, Imperial College London St Marys Campus, London, United Kingdom., Kalinov K; Medistat Ltd. Statistical Services, Sofia, Bulgaria., Stange R; Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Immanuel Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany., Gancitano G; 1st 'Tuscania' Paratrooper Regiment Carabinieri, Italian Ministry of Defence, Livorno, Italy., Berghe WV; Laboratory of Protein Chemistry, Proteomics and Epigenetic Signaling (PPES) and Integrated Personalized and Precision Oncology Network (IPPON), Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp (UA), Antwerp, Belgium., Kreft S; Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in pharmacology [Front Pharmacol] 2022 Apr 26; Vol. 13, pp. 856410. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Apr 26 (Print Publication: 2022). |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fphar.2022.856410 |
| Abstrakt: | SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is effective in preventing severe Covid-19, but efficacy in reducing viral load and transmission wanes over time. In addition, the emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants increases the threat of uncontrolled dissemination and additional antiviral therapies are urgently needed for effective containment. In previous in vitro studies Echinacea purpurea demonstrated strong antiviral activity against enveloped viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we examined the potential of Echinacea purpurea in preventing and treating respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and in particular, SARS-CoV-2 infections. 120 healthy volunteers (m,f, 18-75 years) were randomly assigned to Echinacea prevention or control group without any intervention. After a run-in week, participants went through 3 prevention cycles of 2, 2 and 1 month with daily 2,400 mg Echinacea purpurea extract (Echinaforce ® , EF). The prevention cycles were interrupted by breaks of 1 week. Acute respiratory symptoms were treated with 4,000 mg EF for up to 10 days, and their severity assessed via a diary. Naso/oropharyngeal swabs and venous blood samples were routinely collected every month and during acute illnesses for detection and identification of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 via RT-qPCR and serology. Summarized over all phases of prevention, 21 and 29 samples tested positive for any virus in the EF and control group, of which 5 and 14 samples tested SARS-CoV-2 positive (RR = 0.37, Chi-square test, p = 0.03). Overall, 10 and 14 symptomatic episodes occurred, of which 5 and 8 were Covid-19 (RR = 0.70, Chi-square test, p > 0.05). EF treatment when applied during acute episodes significantly reduced the overall virus load by at least 2.12 log Competing Interests: EK and LM are employed by Convex Ltd. KK is employed by Medistat Services Ltd. EK, LM, KK, SJ, WB, and RS have received honorarium funds from the study sponsor. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflict of interest. This study was sponsored by A. Vogel AG, Roggwil, Switzerland. The role of the sponsor was to supply the study medication, which was the Echinaforce chewable tablets. (Copyright © 2022 Kolev, Mircheva, Edwards, Johnston, Kalinov, Stange, Gancitano, Berghe and Kreft.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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