Spanish Researchers Begin Trialing Olive-Derived Treatment for Long Covid

Spanish researchers have begun tri­al­ing a food sup­ple­ment made with polyphe­nols from olives and flavonoids from bit­ter oranges as a treat­ment for symp­toms of post-acute seque­lae SARS-CoV‑2 infec­tion, also known as long Covid.

The Endothelyx 45 sup­ple­ment will be given to patients who have passed the acute phase of the dis­ease but con­tinue to strug­gle with symp­toms such as chronic fatigue, joint pain and mem­ory loss.

The aim of the research is to study the effects of the sup­ple­ment on endothe­lial cells, which are found in the inner lin­ing of the arter­ies and play a key role in car­dio­vas­cu­lar health.

It is thought that one of the ways in which Covid-19 attacks the body is by caus­ing inflam­ma­tion and oxida­tive stress in these cells result­ing in the symp­toms asso­ci­ated with long Covid.

Polyphenols are nat­ural bioac­tive com­pounds present in fruit, veg­eta­bles and other plants, which are known for their antiox­i­dant and anti-inflam­ma­tory prop­er­ties.

In recent years, they have been cred­ited with help­ing to pre­vent the devel­op­ment of cer­tain dis­eases, includ­ing can­cer, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases.

In a sep­a­rate trial being car­ried out by the University Hospital of Jaén, another food sup­ple­ment con­tain­ing polyphe­nols from olives is being admin­is­tered to patients with mild or mod­er­ate Covid-19 symp­toms to study its effi­cacy in pre­vent­ing the ill­ness from pro­gress­ing to the acute stages.

According to a gov­ern­ment study from the United Kingdom, reported in the Guardian, more than two mil­lion adults in England have expe­ri­enced coro­n­avirus symp­toms last­ing for more than 12 weeks, twice as long as the pre­vi­ous esti­mate for long Covid.

The clin­i­cal trial, which is being car­ried out by the Regional University Hospital of Málaga, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Spanish com­pa­nies Genosa, Synlab and Solvitae Medical, will last for six months.

• Nutraceutical Business Review
• Fundación para la Investigación. Biosanitaria de Andalucía Oriental
• The Guardian