ArticleFrontiers in immunology2021
Nutritional Immunity, Zinc Sufficiency, and COVID-19 Mortality in Socially Similar European Populations.
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Role of Metals on SARS-CoV-2 Infection: a Review of Recent Epidemiological Studies.Current environmental health reports · 2023Pooled it
- New insights into the role of metallothioneins in obesity and diabetes.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Review
- Article
- A systematic review: The relationship of COVID-19 to iron, zinc, and vitamin D.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2023Article
- Relationship between Plasma Levels of Zinc and Magnesium with the Treatment Process and Mortality Risk in COVID-19 Patients.Tanaffos · 2023Article
- The zinc proteome of SARS-CoV-2.Metallomics : integrated biometal science · 2022Article
- Higher BCG-induced trained immunity prevalence predicts protection from COVID-19: Implications for ongoing BCG trials.Clinical and translational discovery · 2022Article
- Serum zinc levels in pediatric patients with COVID-19.European journal of pediatrics · 2022Observational
- Nutritional interventions to augment immunity for COVID-19.Nutrition & diabetes · 2022Article
- Gustatory and Saliva Secretory Dysfunctions in COVID-19 Patients with Zinc Deficiency.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Association of COVID-19 mortality with serum selenium, zinc and copper: Six observational studies across Europe.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Observational
- Hyper-Immune Bovine Milk as an Immunological and Nutritional Supplement for COVID-19.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Potential for Further Mismanagement of Fever During COVID-19 Pandemic: Possible Causes and Impacts.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The impact of zinc (Zn) sufficiency/supplementation on COVID-19-associated mortality and incidence (SARS-CoV-2 infections) remains unknown. During an infection, the levels of free Zn are reduced as part of "nutritional immunity" to limit the growth and replication of pathogen and the ensuing inflammatory damage. Considering its key role in immune competency and frequently recorded deficiency in large sections of different populations, Zn has been prescribed for both prophylactic and therapeutic purposes in COVID-19 without any corroborating evidence for its protective role. Multiple trials are underway evaluating the effect of Zn supplementation on COVID-19 outcome in patients getting standard of care treatment. However, the trial designs presumably lack the power to identify negative effects of Zn supplementation, especially in the vulnerable groups of elderly and patients with comorbidities (contributing 9 out of 10 deaths; up to >8,000-fold higher mortality). In this study, we have analyzed COVID-19 mortality and incidence (case) data from 23 socially similar European populations with comparable confounders (population: 522.47 million; experiencing up to >150-fold difference in death rates) and at the matching stage of the pandemic (March 12 to June 26, 2020; first wave of COVID-19 incidence and mortality). Our results suggest a positive correlation between populations' Zn-sufficiency status and COVID-19 mortality [
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