The study just published by the Tor Vergata team of clinicians, together with colleagues from Sapienza in the Journal of Molecular Sciences, has investigated the mechanisms of action of lactoferrin, suggesting its use in the treatment of paucisymptomatic and asymptomatic positive Covid patients. . The effect of lactoferrin against Covid can also be considered in prevention as an effective weapon in controlling the infection.

Among the scientific considerations and insights, a fact emerged during the crucial phase of the pandemic, namely that children, despite being infected with the virus, had much milder symptoms than adults, and only in very rare cases the infection got worse.

There is still a lot to understand about this aspect, but among the reasons there is attention to the role of innate and humoral immunity of young patients, with functions that are probably more restrictive and effective against Covid-19 than adults. On closer inspection, in fact, the defense system of children responds quickly to infections with natural non-specific immunity and with the production of antibodies. A natural immunity protein, lactoferrin already present in breast milk, protects against infections like a tightly meshed net, preventing pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi) from passing into the cells of the respiratory and intestinal mucosa.

The antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties of lactoferrin, intuitions and supports researcher Elena Campione, Associate of the UOSD of Dermatology at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic, make it the ideal molecule to treat positive Covid19 patients. In the month of April, therefore, it was subsequently proposed together with researcher Luca Bianchi, Ordinary and Director of the UOSD of Dermatology and Massimo Andreoni, Ordinary of Infectious Diseases of the PTV, a clinical study for paucisymptomatic and asymptomatic Covid19 patients to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an innovative liposomal formulation of lactoferrin, administered for use oral and intranasal. This clinical trial, claims the Tor Vergata team, was the first approved, on the use of lactoferrin in positive Covid patients at national and international level. The results obtained in patients demonstrated, for the first time, the efficacy of lactoferrin in favoring, without adverse effects, the remission of clinical symptoms in positive symptomatic Covid-19 patients and the negativization of the tampon already 12 days after treatment. We have also seen remarkable results from blood tests that will soon be published.

Alongside this clinical study, a team coordinated by Piera Valenti, Professor of Microbiology at the La Sapienza University of Rome and Member of the International Committee on Lactoferrin, verified in parallel the quality, purity and integrity of the lactoferrin used. It also performed in vitro tests on the antiviral action of lactoferrin demonstrating how this protein inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection, blocking the early stages of virus-cell interaction.

Lactoferrin is a glycoprotein capable of subtracting unbound iron from body fluids and areas of inflammation, with capacity twice that of transferrin, so as to avoid the damage produced by toxic oxygen radicals and decrease the availability of ions ferric for the microorganisms that invade the host. It has antiviral and antibacterial activity, it is considered one of the most important factors of natural non-antibody immunity. It is present in the mucous membranes and in the granules of neutrophils along with other factors such as lysozyme and lactoperoxidase. Specific lactoferrin receptors are present on epithelial cells in the mucous membranes, lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages and platelets.

Lactoferrin inhibits both directly and indirectly the various viruses that cause disease in humans. It directly inhibits viral infection by binding to the sites of viral receptors and / or to the heparan sulphates of the host cells, thus preventing the virus from infecting the cells. Furthermore, lactoferrin increases the systemic immune response to viral invasion. It is interesting to note that there is a systemic deficiency of lactoferrin in those affected by HIV. In various in vitro studies, lactoferrin has been shown to have powerful antiviral effects against replication of both human HIV and cytomegalovirus (CMV) without showing any cytotoxicity. In addition to HIV and CMV, further studies have found that lactoferrin inhibits Herpes Simplex type 1 and 2 infection. The antiviral action of lactoferrin was also studied in vitro in 2011 against the SARS virus. Cov, by a team of Chinese researchers, who have confirmed its protective role, thanks to the binding to the heparan sulfate which therefore prevents the entry of the virus.

(Source: University of Rome “Tor Vergata”)

Click here to read the original study: mdpi.com

See also: spread of the coronavirus in the world real time map

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