ArticleMedical hypotheses2020
Phosphatidylglycerol and surfactant: A potential treatment for COVID-19?
Article in Medical hypotheses, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and metabolomic analysis of the pneumonia compound formulation against community-acquired pneumonia: an observational controlled before-after clinical trial.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Trial
- Valproic acid remodels phosphatidylglycerol homeostasis and epithelial-macrophage crosstalk in inflammatory signaling.iScience · 2026Article
- TLR2 Activation as a Marker of Severe COVID-19 and a Potential Therapeutic Target.Current medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Unraveling the enigma: The emerging significance of pulmonary surfactant proteins in predicting, diagnosing, and managing COVID-19.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2024Review
- Adsorption of pulmonary and exogeneous surfactants on SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.Journal of colloid and interface science · 2023Article
- Review of Eukaryote Cellular Membrane Lipid Composition, with Special Attention to the Fatty Acids.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Surfactant replacement therapy as promising treatment for COVID-19: an updated narrative review.Bioscience reports · 2023Review
- The anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties of anionic pulmonary surfactant phospholipids.Immunological reviews · 2023Review
- Phosphatidylglycerol to Treat Chronic Skin Wounds in Diabetes.Pharmaceutics · 2023Review
- The Role of Pulmonary Surfactant Phospholipids in Fibrotic Lung Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
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- Genome-wide CRISPR screens identify GATA6 as a proviral host factor for SARS-CoV-2 via modulation of ACE2.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Antimicrobial Tear Lipids in the Ocular Surface Defense.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Alveolar type II cells and pulmonary surfactant in COVID-19 era.Physiological research · 2021Review
- Surfactants - Compounds for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses.Current opinion in colloid & interface science · 2021Review
- Coronavirus disease-2019: A review on the disease exacerbation via cytokine storm and concurrent management.International immunopharmacology · 2021Review
- The use of negative oxygen ion clusters [OMedical hypotheses · 2021Article
- Use of exogenous pulmonary surfactant in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS): Role in SARS-CoV-2-related lung injury.Respiratory physiology & neurobiology · 2021Review
- Towards the Development of Long Circulating Phosphatidylserine (PS)- and Phosphatidylglycerol (PG)-Enriched Anti-Inflammatory Liposomes: Is PEGylation Effective?Pharmaceutics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
A hypothesis concerning the potential utility of surfactant supplementation for the treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19 is proposed, along with a brief summary of the data in the literature supporting this idea. It is thought that surfactant, which is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for intratracheal administration to treat neonatal respiratory distress syndrome in pre-term infants, could benefit COVID-19-infected individuals by: (1) restoring surfactant damaged by lung infection and/or decreased due to the virus-induced death of the type II pneumocytes that produce it and (2) reducing surface tension to decrease the work of breathing and limit pulmonary edema. In addition, a constituent of surfactant, phosphatidylglycerol, could mitigate COVID-19-induced lung pathology by: (3) decreasing excessive innate immune system stimulation via its inhibition of toll-like receptor-2 and -4 activation by microbial components and cellular proteins released by damaged cells, thereby limiting inflammation and the resultant pulmonary edema, and (4) possibly blocking spread of the viral infection to non-infected cells in the lung. Therefore, it is suggested that surfactant preparations containing phosphatidylglycerol be tested for their ability to improve lung function in critically ill patients with COVID-19.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.