AUTHOR=Alberca Ricardo Wesley , Rigato Paula Ordonhez , Ramos Yasmim Álefe Leuzzi , Teixeira Franciane Mouradian Emidio , Branco Anna Cláudia Calvielli , Fernandes Iara Grigoletto , Pietrobon Anna Julia , Duarte Alberto Jose da Silva , Aoki Valeria , Orfali Raquel Leão , Sato Maria Notomi TITLE=Clinical Characteristics and Survival Analysis in Frequent Alcohol Consumers With COVID-19 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.689296 DOI=10.3389/fnut.2021.689296 ISSN=2296-861X ABSTRACT=

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can generate a systemic disease named coronavirus disease–2019 (COVID-19). Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions worldwide, presenting huge health and economic challenges worldwide. Several risk factors, such as age, co-infections, metabolic syndrome, and smoking have been associated with poor disease progression and outcomes. Alcohol drinking is a common social practice among adults, but frequent and/or excessive consumption can mitigate the anti-viral and anti-bacterial immune responses. Therefore, we investigated if patients with self-reported daily alcohol consumption (DAC) presented alteration in the immune response to SARS-CoV-2. We investigated 122 patients with COVID-19 (101 male and 46 females), in which 23 were patients with DAC (18 men and 5 women) and 99 were non-DAC patients (58 men and 41 women), without other infections, neoplasia, or immunodeficiencies. Although with no difference in age, patients with DAC presented an increase in severity-associated COVID-19 markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil count, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. In addition, patients with DAC presented a reduction in the lymphocytes and monocytes counts. Importantly, the DAC group presented an increase in death rate in comparison with the non-DAC group. Our results demonstrated that, in our cohort, DAC enhanced COVID-19-associated inflammation, and increased the number of deaths due to COVID-19.