The pandemic of
COVID-19 was caused by a novel coronavirus termed as SARS-CoV2 and is still ongoing with high morbidity and mortality rates in the whole world. The pathogenesis of
COVID-19 is highly linked with over-active immune and inflammatory responses, leading to activated
cytokine storm, which contribute to ARDS with worsen outcome. Currently, there is no effective therapeutic drug for the treatment of
COVID-19.
Zinc is known to act as an immune modulator, which plays an important role in immune defense system. Recently,
zinc has been widely considered as an anti-inflammatory and
anti-oxidant agent. Accumulating numbers of studies have revealed that
zinc plays an important role in
antiviral immunity in several
viral infections. Several early clinical trials clearly indicate that
zinc treatment remarkably decreased the severity of the upper respiratory
infection of rhinovirus in humans. Currently,
zinc has been used for the therapeutic intervention of
COVID-19 in many different clinical trials. Several clinical studies reveal that
zinc treatment using a combination of HCQ and
zinc pronouncedly reduced symptom score and the rates of hospital admission and mortality in
COVID-19 patients. These data support that
zinc might act as an anti-viral agent in the addition to its anti-inflammatory and
anti-oxidant properties for the adjuvant therapeutic intervention of
COVID-19.