ArticleMetabolism: clinical and experimental2020
Commentary: Could iron chelators prove to be useful as an adjunct to COVID-19 Treatment Regimens?
Article in Metabolism: clinical and experimental, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Therapeutic Potential of Iron Chelators in Viral Diseases: A Systematic Review.Current medicinal chemistry · 2024Pooled it
- Trial
- Prediction of survival odds in COVID-19 by zinc, age and selenoprotein P as composite biomarker.Redox biology · 2021Trial
- Placental ferroptosis and impaired fetal growth in symptomatic and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.Clinical science (London, England : 1979) · 2026Article
- Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential of Nutritional Immunity.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Role of Ferroptosis in Alveolar Epithelial Cells in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Review
- Can iron chelators ameliorate viral infections?Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2024Review
- Ferroptosis at the nexus of metabolism and metabolic diseases.Theranostics · 2024Review
- Exploration of the link between COVID-19 and gastric cancer from the perspective of bioinformatics and systems biology.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- [Deferoxamine promotes recovery of bone marrow hematopoietic function in mice exposed to a sublethal dose of X-ray irradiation].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2023Article
- Antioxidant and Immune-Related Implications of Minerals in COVID-19: A Possibility for Disease Prevention and Management.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Deferoxamine in the management of COVID-19 adult patients admitted to ICU: a prospective observational cohort study.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2023Article
- Update on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines on different variants of SARS-CoV-2.International immunopharmacology · 2023Review
- Ferroptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis in acute respiratory distress syndrome.Cell death discovery · 2023Review
- Perspectives in vaccines, immune response, therapeutic interventions and COVID-19.Metabolism open · 2023Article
- Deferoxamine has the Potential to Improve the COVID-19-Related Inflammatory Response in Diabetic Patients.International journal of peptide research and therapeutics · 2023Review
- Bovine colostrum and its potential contributions for treatment and prevention of COVID-19.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- The beneficial role of Hepcidin peptide inhibitor in improved the symptoms of COVID-19 in diabetics: anti-inflammatory and potential therapeutic effects.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2022Review
- Growth differentiation factor 15 as an emerging novel biomarker in SARS-CoV-2 infection.World journal of methodology · 2022Article
- Exploring the Role of Heavy Metals and Their Derivatives on the Pathophysiology of COVID-19.Biological trace element research · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pandemic of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a significant threat to global health. Currently, no specific prophylactic and therapeutic treatment is available. No evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that a treatment may ameliorate the clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19 exists with the only exception of preliminary evidence from remdesivir trials. Here, we present evidence from the literature and a compelling hypothesis on the potential immunomodulatory, iron chelating and anti-oxidant effects of iron chelators in the treatment of COVID-19 and its complications. Interestingly, iron chelation has been shown in vitro to suppress endothelial inflammation in viral infection, which is the main pathophysiologic mechanism behind systemic organ involvement induced by SARS-CoV-2, by inhibiting IL-6 synthesis through decreasing NF-kB. Iron chelators exhibit iron chelating, antiviral and immunomodulatory effects in vitro and in vivo, particularly against RNA viruses. These agents could attenuate ARDS and help control SARS-CoV-2 via multiple mechanisms including: 1) inhibition of viral replication; 2) decrease of iron availability; 3) upregulation of B cells; 4) improvement of the neutralizing anti-viral antibody titer; 5) inhibition of endothelial inflammation and 6) prevention of pulmonary fibrosis and lung decline via reduction of pulmonary iron accumulation. Both retrospective analyses of data in electronic health records, as well as proof of concept studies in humans and large RCTs are needed to fully elucidate the efficacy and safety of iron chelating agents in the therapeutic armamentarium of COVID-19, probably as an adjunctive treatment.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.