COVID-19 patients have hardly expanded levels of oxidative stress and oxidant injury, and glutathione shortage
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine looked at how COVID-19 infection affected oxidative stress, oxidant degradation, and glutathione, the most prevalent physiological oxidant in the body.
Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had significantly higher oxidative stress and oxidant damage levels than good, age-matched people whose samples were taken before the global epidemic began in 2019.
They also had significantly lower rates of glutathione than healthy age-matched individuals whose samples were taken before the global epidemic began in 2019.
The findings, which were the issue of the journal Antioxidants, recommend that intake with GlyNAC, a mixture of glutathione precursors that has been shown to reduce oxidative stress and oxidant harm, boost glutathione, and promote health indicators such as inflammation, may be advantageous to COVID-19 patients who have peroxidation and oxidant harm.
However, there has been no research into the effects of GlyNAC intake in conjunction with COVID-19.
As an originator, Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar, a correlate professor of psychiatry in Baylor’s segment of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism, explained: “Increased peroxidation and decreased glutathione levels are affected by a variety of conditions such aging, diabetes, Hiv, dementias, cardiovascular disorders, chronic and progressive diseases, adiposity, and others.”
“We hypothesized that COVID-19 may also affect oxidative stress and glutathione levels, and this was validated in our investigation in adults who were hospitalized with COVID-19.”
“We discovered that these impairments affect adults of all ages, including children and adolescents, and that they deteriorate with increasing age.”
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Sekhar and his colleagues worked with a total of 60 individuals (25 women and 35 men, ages ranging from 21 to 85 years) who were hospitalized to the hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The participants were divided into two groups: women and men.
The researchers examined oxidative stress, oxidant damage, and glutathione levels in the patients’ blood samples and compared them to healthy people in the study.
Following the age of the COVID-19 patients, researchers divided their samples into three groups: those between the ages of 21 and 40, those between 41 and 60, and those aged 61 and higher.
Sekhar’s group had previously demonstrated that the levels of oxidative stress, oxidative damage, and glutathione in healthy adults remain stable until they reach the age of 60.
At that point, oxidative stress and oxidative damage levels begin to rise, and glutathione levels begin to decline. The infection with COVID-19 altered this pattern.
As a result, “we were startled to see that COVID-19 patients in the 21-40 and 41-60 age groups had much lower glutathione levels and significantly higher levels of oxidative stress than the equivalent age groups without COVID-19,” Sekhar added.
“We were aware that healthy adults over the age of 60 who do not have COVID-19 are more likely to be glutathione deficient and to experience higher oxidative stress.
“However, when the 60-plus age group received COVID-19, their glutathione levels were much lower, and their oxidative stress levels were significantly greater than individuals of a comparable age who did not receive COVID-19,” the researchers write.
“This is a significant new finding,” Sekhar stated. “The discovery that younger persons with COVID-19 are also glutathione deficient, have higher oxidative stress, and have oxidant damage is quite surprising, because we do not often detect these problems in younger age groups,” says the researcher.
The severity of these impairments appears to deteriorate with advancing age, and the COVID-19 individuals who were the oldest had the worst deficiencies in the outcomes studied. “We hypothesize that these hypothesizes may be implicated in the development of the illness.”
Oxidative stress is caused by a buildup of free radicals, which are extremely reactive chemicals that may harm cells, membranes, lipids, proteins, and DNA.
The breakdown of organic matter produces free radicals. Glutathione is produced by cells in the body to protect them from oxidative damage.
When cells cannot neutralize free radicals, they can cause detrimental cellular damage that can interfere with various physiological activities.
“Previous research has demonstrated that elevated levels of oxidative stress and decreased glutathione are prevalent not just in older persons, but also in people with HIV, a viral infection, and those with diabetes.
According to Sekhar, “We also discovered that feeding GlyNAC, which is a mixture of glutathione precursors, helped to correct these abnormalities in all of these groups.”
Apart from that, Sekhar’s research revealed that supplementing the amino acid GlyNAC to older people and HIV patients effectively reverses various abnormalities such as inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and insulin resistance.
It also improved muscle strength, exercise capacity, cognitive decline, gene damage, and body composition. There have also been reports of several abnormalities in people with COVID-19.
“In light of our previous findings on the effects of GlyNAC supplementation in other populations, as well as the current finding that people hospitalized with COVID-19 hospitalized one deficiency and increased oxidative stress, we considered whether GlyNAC supplementation could also combat these defects in COVID-19 and potentially be valuable in aiding the body’s fight against this severe infection.”
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It is still necessary to study the effects of GlyNAC supplementation in patients with COVID-19 in future research studies,” Sekhar stated.
Additionally, co-first authors Premranjan Kumar, Ob Osahon, David Vides, Nicola Hanania, and Charles G. Minard, all affiliated with the Baylor College of Medicine, contributed to this study. Any external funding did not support this study.
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