Thiol levels in mild or moderate COVID‐19 patients: A comparison of variant and classic COVID‐19 cases

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, also known as Coronavirus-19, is the seventh member of the coronavirus family, which has members such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), following its detection in Wuhan in 2019 in a short time, it has turned into a pandemic that has taken the world under its influence. 1 Basically, four variants of concern are mentioned, namely alpha, beta, gamma and delta of the coronavirus family. It is known that the beta type, to which SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 subtypes belong, causes more severe infection. 2 In the COVID-19 pandemic, variant virus forms were first reported in South Africa in May 2020, followed by variants from the United Kingdom, India and Brazil. [3][4][5] South Africa has named this variant 501Y.V2, because of an N501Y mutation. 5 The UK variant is called SARS-CoV-2 VOC202012/01 (Variant of Concern, the year 2020, month 12, variant 01). 5 In January 2021, the first SARS-CoV-2 UK variant was detected in Turkey followed by the South African variant. 6 Today, 10 kinds of variants of the virus are mentioned. 7 Various speculations have been made regarding the clinical course of these variant viruses. However, a clear

Mild Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Is Marked by Systemic Oxidative Stress: A Pilot Study

“…Most importantly, this study provides convincing evidence of a significant association between serum free thiol concentrations—being a minimally invasive method to quantify systemic oxidative stress—and COVID-19, as these concentrations were evidently reduced in non-hospitalized subjects with relatively mild COVID-19. This cohort of non-hospitalized subjects is unique and provides new evidence on the presence of oxidative stress in COVID-19, complementing previous studies [ 7 , 8 ], but this time specifically for milder cases. The short-term follow-up with clinical and biochemical data available at both day 0 and day 7 allowed us to make observations over time in the disease course.…”

“…Taken together, a systemic disbalance in redox status is considered to be part of the complex pathogenesis of COVID-19, providing a therapeutic target that could especially benefit individuals with an already impaired redox balance [ 5 , 6 ]. Although strong on theoretical grounds with upcoming studies providing direct evidence of oxidative stress in COVID-19, the exact role of oxidative stress in COVID-19 remains unclear and biomarkers to evaluate the redox status in COVID-19 are urgently needed [ 7 , 8 ].…”

“…In light of these considerations, we hypothesized that COVID-19 will be associated with reduced concentrations of free thiols, reflecting ongoing systemic oxidative stress in this disease. In fact, other studies have recently demonstrated lower free thiol concentrations in COVID-19 as compared to healthy controls [ 7 , 8 ], by using a spectrophotometric method developed by Erel and Neselioglu to measure native thiol, total thiol, and disulphide levels [ 16 ]. We hypothesized that this systemic redox imbalance is present even in mild COVID-19 not requiring hospital admission.…”

The potential role of COVID-19 in the induction of DNA damage

“…In COVID-19 patients, serum levels of glutathione and total thiol are decreased, while levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, malondialdehyde (a marker of oxidative stress and lipoperoxidation) and the total oxidant status are increased [ 57 , [80] , [81] , [82] ]. Oxidative stress levels correlated with blood oxygen saturation levels, disease severity, prognosis, and with the virus variant that was causing the infection [ 57 , 80 , 82 , 83 ]. Mechanistically, an analysis of transcriptome changes observed in different data sets from blood cells, lung biopsies or leukocytes from healthy subjects and COVID-19 patients showed that there is a significant upregulation of pro-oxidant genes, principally the myeloperoxidase and calprotectin genes [ 84 ].…”

Effect of ArtemiC in patients with COVID‐19: A Phase II prospective study

“… 47 , 48 In this regard, it was found that thiol levels are low in COVID‐19 patients. 49 The role of oxidative stress in COVID‐19 pathology is further supported by potential positive impact of oral and intravenous glutathione (GSH) and N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) on the cytokine storm and ARDS in COVID‐19 patients. 50 , 51 Likewise, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and curcumin exert various pharmacological effects including anti‐bacterial, anti‐cancer, anti‐inflammatory, immuno‐modulatory, anti‐oxidant, anti‐fungal, anti‐mutagenic, and anti‐viral activities, 52 which may have contributed to the obtained beneficial effects of ArtemiC.…”