AUTHOR=Ujjan Ikram Din , Khan Saeed , Nigar Roohi , Ahmed Hammad , Ahmad Sagheer , Khan Amjad 

TITLE=The possible therapeutic role of curcumin and quercetin in the early-stage of COVID-19—Results from a pragmatic randomized clinical trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.1023997

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.1023997

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Curcumin (CUR) and quercetin (QUE), two natural polyphenols, possess diverse biological activities including broad-spectrum antiviral, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. Both CUR and QUE have shown inhibition of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in <italic>in vitro</italic> assays.</p></sec><sec><title>Objective</title><p>In the present study we aimed to assess the possible treatment benefits of a combined curcumin and quercetin (CUR-QUE) oral supplement, alongside standard of care (SOC), in the <italic>early-stage</italic> COVID-19 infection.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>This was an exploratory, pragmatic, open-label, randomized controlled clinical trial, conducted at the Department of Pathology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, PK. The study compared the treatment effect of an oral CUR-QUE supplement <italic>plus</italic> SOC vs. SOC alone, in the <italic>early-stage</italic>/mild to moderately symptomatic COVID-19 outpatients. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to CUR-QUE (<italic>n</italic> = 25) and control (<italic>n</italic> = 25) treatment groups. The CUR-QUE supplementation consisted of a daily intake of 168 mg curcumin and 260 mg quercetin, as two soft capsules, to be taken twice a day at home for 14 days.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>After one-week of treatment, most of the patients in the CUR-QUE group showed an expedited clearance of the viral infection i.e., 18 (72.0%) vs. 6 (24.0%) patients in the control group tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 in the nasal-oropharyngeal swab reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis (<italic>p</italic> = 0.0002). In addition, COVID-19-associated acute symptoms were also speedily resolved in the CUR-QUE treated patients, i.e., 10 (40.0%) vs. 4 (16.0%) patients in the control group (<italic>p</italic> = 0.061). The CUR-QUE supplementation therapy was well-tolerated by all 25 patients and no treatment-emergent effects or serious adverse events were reported.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The results revealed in this exploratory study suggest a possible therapeutic role of curcumin and quercetin in the <italic>early-stage</italic> of COVID-19. It is proposed that the two agents possibly acting in synergy, interfere the SARS-CoV-2 replication, and thus help a speedy recovery in the <italic>early-stage</italic> of COVID-19. Further research is highly encouraged.</p></sec><sec><title>Clinical trial registration</title><p><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://Clinicaltrials.gov" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Clinicaltrials.gov</ext-link>, Identifier NCT04603690.</p></sec>