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The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a life-threatening RNA virus that may cause an acute respiratory syndrome associated with extremely high morbidity and mortality rates. Folic acid (FA), also known as folate, is an essential vitamin vital for human homeostasis, participating in many biochemical pathways, an...

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Autores principales: Karakousis, Nikolaos D., Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I., Kotsiou, Ourania S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10052526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36983742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm13030561
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author Karakousis, Nikolaos D.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Kotsiou, Ourania S.
author_facet Karakousis, Nikolaos D.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Kotsiou, Ourania S.
author_sort Karakousis, Nikolaos D.
collection PubMed
description Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a life-threatening RNA virus that may cause an acute respiratory syndrome associated with extremely high morbidity and mortality rates. Folic acid (FA), also known as folate, is an essential vitamin vital for human homeostasis, participating in many biochemical pathways, and its deficiency has been associated with viral infection vulnerability. In this review, we investigated the association between FA intake and SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with the existence of any potential impact of FA on the health outcome of patients suffering from this new viral infection. Methods: Studies included were patients’ and in silico and molecular docking studies. Results: Data from in silico studies and molecular docking support that FA inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry into the host and viral replication, binding at essential residues. Accordingly, in patients’ studies, a protective role of FA supplementation against SARS-CoV-2 infection is indicated. However, contradictory data from observational studies indicate that FA supplementation, often linked to deficits during systemic inflammation due to SARS-CoV-2, increases the risk of post-infection mortality. Conclusions: Future randomized controlled trial studies, including the FA pharmacological group, are needed to better understand the role of FA as a potential protective or mortality risk indicator in COVID-19 patients.
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spelling pubmed-100525262023-03-30 The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation Karakousis, Nikolaos D. Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I. Kotsiou, Ourania S. J Pers Med Review Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a life-threatening RNA virus that may cause an acute respiratory syndrome associated with extremely high morbidity and mortality rates. Folic acid (FA), also known as folate, is an essential vitamin vital for human homeostasis, participating in many biochemical pathways, and its deficiency has been associated with viral infection vulnerability. In this review, we investigated the association between FA intake and SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with the existence of any potential impact of FA on the health outcome of patients suffering from this new viral infection. Methods: Studies included were patients’ and in silico and molecular docking studies. Results: Data from in silico studies and molecular docking support that FA inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry into the host and viral replication, binding at essential residues. Accordingly, in patients’ studies, a protective role of FA supplementation against SARS-CoV-2 infection is indicated. However, contradictory data from observational studies indicate that FA supplementation, often linked to deficits during systemic inflammation due to SARS-CoV-2, increases the risk of post-infection mortality. Conclusions: Future randomized controlled trial studies, including the FA pharmacological group, are needed to better understand the role of FA as a potential protective or mortality risk indicator in COVID-19 patients. MDPI 2023-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10052526/ /pubmed/36983742 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm13030561 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Karakousis, Nikolaos D.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Kotsiou, Ourania S.
The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title_full The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title_fullStr The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title_short The Role of Folic Acid in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Intriguing Linkage under Investigation
title_sort role of folic acid in sars-cov-2 infection: an intriguing linkage under investigation
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10052526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36983742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm13030561
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