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Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing major sanitary and socioeconomic issues, yet some locations are less impacted than others. While densely populated areas are likely to favor viral transmission, we hypothesize that other environmental factors could explain lower cases in some areas....
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8408569/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34483793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01309-5 |
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author | Roviello, Valentina Roviello, Giovanni N. |
author_facet | Roviello, Valentina Roviello, Giovanni N. |
author_sort | Roviello, Valentina |
collection | PubMed |
description | The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing major sanitary and socioeconomic issues, yet some locations are less impacted than others. While densely populated areas are likely to favor viral transmission, we hypothesize that other environmental factors could explain lower cases in some areas. We studied COVID-19 impact and population statistics in highly forested Mediterranean Italian regions versus some northern regions where the amount of trees per capita is much lower. We also evaluated the affinity of Mediterranean plant-emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) isoprene, α-pinene, linalool and limonene for COVID-19 protein targets by molecular docking modeling. Results show that while mean death number increased about 4 times from 2020 to 2021, the percentage of deaths per population (0.06–0.10%) was lower in the greener Mediterranean regions such as Sardinia, Calabria and Basilica versus northern regions with low forest coverage, such as Lombardy (0.33%) and Emilia Romagna (0.29%). Data also show that the pandemic severity cannot be explained solely by population density. Modeling reveals that plant organic compounds could bind and interfere with the complex formed by the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein with the human cell receptor. Overall, our findings are likely explained by sea proximity and mild climate, Mediterranean diet and the abundance of non-deciduous Mediterranean plants which emit immunomodulatory and antiviral compounds. Potential implications include ‘forest bathing’ as a therapeutic practice, designing nasal sprays containing plant volatile organic compounds, and preserving and increasing forest coverage. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-021-01309-5. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8408569 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84085692021-09-01 Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds Roviello, Valentina Roviello, Giovanni N. Environ Chem Lett Original Paper The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing major sanitary and socioeconomic issues, yet some locations are less impacted than others. While densely populated areas are likely to favor viral transmission, we hypothesize that other environmental factors could explain lower cases in some areas. We studied COVID-19 impact and population statistics in highly forested Mediterranean Italian regions versus some northern regions where the amount of trees per capita is much lower. We also evaluated the affinity of Mediterranean plant-emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) isoprene, α-pinene, linalool and limonene for COVID-19 protein targets by molecular docking modeling. Results show that while mean death number increased about 4 times from 2020 to 2021, the percentage of deaths per population (0.06–0.10%) was lower in the greener Mediterranean regions such as Sardinia, Calabria and Basilica versus northern regions with low forest coverage, such as Lombardy (0.33%) and Emilia Romagna (0.29%). Data also show that the pandemic severity cannot be explained solely by population density. Modeling reveals that plant organic compounds could bind and interfere with the complex formed by the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein with the human cell receptor. Overall, our findings are likely explained by sea proximity and mild climate, Mediterranean diet and the abundance of non-deciduous Mediterranean plants which emit immunomodulatory and antiviral compounds. Potential implications include ‘forest bathing’ as a therapeutic practice, designing nasal sprays containing plant volatile organic compounds, and preserving and increasing forest coverage. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-021-01309-5. Springer International Publishing 2021-09-01 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8408569/ /pubmed/34483793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01309-5 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Roviello, Valentina Roviello, Giovanni N. Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title | Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title_full | Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title_fullStr | Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title_full_unstemmed | Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title_short | Less COVID-19 deaths in southern and insular Italy explained by forest bathing, Mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
title_sort | less covid-19 deaths in southern and insular italy explained by forest bathing, mediterranean environment, and antiviral plant volatile organic compounds |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8408569/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34483793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01309-5 |
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