Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Neglected Effective Early Therapies against COVID-19: Focus on Functional Foods and Related Active Substances. A Review

Version 1 : Received: 14 December 2023 / Approved: 15 December 2023 / Online: 15 December 2023 (14:52:13 CET)

How to cite: Donzelli, A. Neglected Effective Early Therapies against COVID-19: Focus on Functional Foods and Related Active Substances. A Review. Preprints 2023, 2023121178. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.1178.v1 Donzelli, A. Neglected Effective Early Therapies against COVID-19: Focus on Functional Foods and Related Active Substances. A Review. Preprints 2023, 2023121178. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.1178.v1

Abstract

The official recommendations to manage COVID-19 in the outpatient setting focus on high-cost drugs (remdesivir, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, molnupiravir), suffering from many problems. Therefore, one may consider also other treatments meeting these criteria: • promising effectiveness, based on favorable randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of sufficient validity. Even without definitive evidence, physicians and informed patients can consider them if they are also: • safe, to the state of knowledge • with a very favorable opportunity cost • biologically plausible/not implausible • accessible • without major commercial sponsors in the trials promoting them, and with researchers without major conflicts of interests. The main focus is on a limited group of functional foods and some their active ingredients, with further mention of other substances of different origin, yet fully meeting all the aforementioned criteria. The functional foods and substances described and discussed certainly do not cover all the known effective therapies for COVID-19 (in one case also for Long-COVID), but the only therapies proposed in this paper currently satisfy all the above criteria. The supporting scientific evidence will favor meta-analyses of RCTs that include the most definitive outcome: all-cause mortality, i.e. the outcome that most fully informed people tend to prioritize. Furthermore, the reported evidence favors clinical studies of the most valid design, i.e. RCTs.

Keywords

EB functional foods in COVID-19 early therapy; EB active ingredients of foods in COVID-19 therapy; EB active substance in Long-COVID-19 therapy; EB active substance for Post-COVID sequelae.

Subject

Public Health and Healthcare, Other

Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 22 December 2023
Commenter:
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: I thank the author for letting me know that besides high-cost antivirals and monoclonal antibodies, there are other effective early therapies for COVID-19 management, which, as the author states, are unfortunately neglected.
I appreciated the criteria he used to select these neglected drugs: promising effectiveness based on favourable RCTs, safety, a very favourable opportunity cost, biologically plausible, accessibility, without major commercial sponsors in the trials promoting them, and with researchers without major conflicts of interests.
I believe it is a social responsibility to inform health professionals and political authorities, especially in low-GDP countries, of the existence of these therapeutic opportunities.
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