Quercetin and it's function against Coivd-19

Immunity is the "umbrella" of human health, a sudden epidemic, but also sounded the alarm bell of national health awareness, people in the focus on external epidemic protection at the same time, but also began to pay attention to how to improve their own immunity to prevent the new crown virus.

Today, when the epidemic is normalized, how can people improve their own immunity? In simple terms, a reasonable diet, adequate sleep, proper exercise and good living habits can improve the body's immunity, and people will choose to supplement some additional nutrients to maintain a good state of health and better resist the invasion of the virus.

On September 13, 2021, researchers at the Charité Medical School in Berlin, Germany, published a research paper titled "Virus-induced senescence is driver and therapeutic target in COVID-19" in Nature, a peer-reviewed review study on the triggers and therapeutic targets of cellular senescence caused by COVID-19, which repeatedly mentioned an excellent plant active ingredient . Quercetin, which has the effect of preventing the new crown virus and reducing the severe disease of the new crown.

What is Quercetin?

Quercetin is a flavonoid compound with a wide range of biological activities that is widely distributed in the plant kingdom.

Quercetin is found in the flowers, leaves and fruits of a variety of plants, and has been proved by modern medical research to have a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidant and scavenging free radicals, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, cardiovascular protection, immunomodulatory and other effects.

However, due to the poor water solubility of quercetin, rapid metabolism in vivo and short half-life, its bioavailability is low, which limits its application. Therefore, the bioavailability of quercetin after oral administration has become a major concern.

Antiviral and immunomodulatory effects of quercetin

Quercetin achieves antiviral effect by blocking viral fusion, inhibiting gene transcription of viruses, inhibiting protein expression of infected cells, and exerting immunomodulatory effects by inhibiting lymphocyte activation and proliferation. Because of its broad-spectrum antiviral effect and immunomodulatory effect, and high human tolerance, it has very important clinical significance for viral infections and immune system diseases, and has received more and more attention.

As early as 2010, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (12-week 1002 adults aged 18 to 85 years) was conducted in an analysis of healthy subjects over the age of 40 who were shown to have lower levels of upper respiratory tract infection severity and total days of upper respiratory tract infection in the quercetin supplementation group with 1000 mg per day compared with the placebo group. This suggests that for middle-aged and elderly people in good health, quercetin supplementation can prevent upper respiratory tract infections. In addition, a large number of studies have also highlighted quercetin's ability to prevent and treat the common cold and flu. Therefore, it may help prevent and treat COVID-19 infections.

Nature Published: Quercefit® (From Indena) Preventing and Treating Covid-19

The aforementioned Nature paper confirmed that Quercefit® (quercetin) produced by Indena has the effect of preventing and treating COVID-19 infection. The Nature review study cites two clinical studies published in 2021 by Francesco Di Pierro on the efficacy of Quecefit® supplementation in the treatment of early Covid-19 infections.

The first clinical trial of Francesco Di Pierro looked at 152 outpatients with confirmed COVID-19 infection but no severe symptoms between September 2020 and March 2021. The study compared treatment regimens between two groups, each consisting of 76 outpatients, the standard care group and the standard care + Quercetin Phytosome® group. Each group was prescribed by the doctor and then went home for treatment, and the patients with aggravated conditions were hospitalized. In addition to standard care, subjects received 30 days of treatment, taking 1000 mg of locust rice hydrolyzed extract Quercefit® (quercetin) per day.

The results of the study are shown in figure:

Outpatients requiring hospitalization :

The standard care group was 22 people with an average length of stay of 6.77 ± 3.08 days, while the standard care + Quercetin Phytosome® group was 7 people with an average length of stay of 1.57 ± 0.53 days.

Patients with oxygen therapy needs:

There were 15 cases in the standard care group and 1 case in the standard care +Quercetin Phytosome® group.

Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU):

There were 8 cases in the standard care group, three of whom died; no patients entered the ICU and no patients died in the standard care +Quercetin Phytosome® group.

The condition progresses and requires time in hospitalization:

The standard care group was 131 days and the standard care +Quercetin Phytosome® group was 11 days. This difference meant that using Quercetin Phytosome® as an add-on to standard care resulted in a 91.6% reduction in the number of days in the patient's hospital stay.

The results of this clinical study show that early use of Quercefit® can shorten the course of illness in patients with mild COVID-19, reduce the need for oxygen therapy, reduce the use of intensive care units, and reduce deaths. Combined with standard care, the use of Quercefit® in the early stages of viral infection can help improve early symptoms and help prevent the severity of COVID-19. Quercefit® was well tolerated with no specific side effects, and subjects also reported favor for chronic fatigue and fatigue as well as loss of appetite, indicating that it also has a potential role in fighting fatigue and improving appetite.

In Francesco Di Pierro's second 2-week randomized, open-label, controlled clinical trial, the primary purpose of the study was to examine the clearance and symptoms of the virus. This clinical trial further demonstrated that quercefit® can accelerate the recovery of patients with mild COVID-19 and is very well tolerated, and can be used as a dietary supplement to prevent COVID-19 infection and treat early symptoms.

Application of quercetin in the market

At present, the well-known Dietary Supplement Brands NEW FOODS, THORNE, Nestlé PURE, Australian high-end health care brand herbs of gold and Likang all have immune health products with quercetin as the main ingredient.

At present, the new crown pneumonia epidemic is not over, and it is particularly important to improve self-immunity and do a good job in disease prevention. Immune health dietary supplements will continue to be the most popular products for some time to come, especially vitamins and minerals, but as the competition in the industry becomes more and more intense, how to stand out in the immune health track requires formula innovation to create differentiated immune health products that are different from the market. Some new, promising ingredients, such as plant extracts, are already constituents of immune health concerns, quercetin is one of them