Omega-3 Fatty Acids - a Cost-Effective Treatment for COVID-19

Intravenous administration of omega-3 fatty acids appears to improve the immune system’s capacity to combat the COVID-19 virus in elderly hospitalized patients receiving intensive care. The study, which was written up in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine, might eventually result in a complementary, affordable treatment for COVID-19. The immune system and the body's white blood cell activation are over-activated in COVID-19 patients, who contracted the disease because of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It may trigger a ‘systemic inflammatory storm’, which can exacerbate the condition and result in complications including sepsis and cardiac failure.

Omega-3 fatty acids have now been demonstrated to drive active healing of inflammation without impairing the immune response by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and other institutions. The most severe side effects of COVID-19 may be prevented by hastening the inflammation’s recovery without impairing the immune system, according to researchers.

Omega-3 Fatty Acid Therapy in COVID-19

(Most people will not look for the word intravenous but just therapy or Omega-3 Fatty Acid that is why I have removed the word Intravenous) In 2020, when the pandemic was still in its early stages and there were no vaccines available, the study was carried out. The study focused on 22 elderly COVID-19 hospitalized patients, half of whom were randomly randomized to receive intravenous Omega-3 fatty acid therapy for five days and the other half to receive intravenous saline administration in the same volume.

By charting inflammatory biomarkers and immunological responses, the therapeutic impact was discovered.

“First, we showed that fatty acid metabolism to inflammation-healing molecules was stimulated in those patients treated with Omega-3 fatty acids. By isolating immune cells before, during, and after treatment, we were able to show that immune function improved,” says Magnus Bäck, senior consultant in cardiology and professor at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s corresponding author.

The biochemical studies were completed in cooperation with the research team of Craig Wheelock at the Karolinska Institutet's Institute of Environmental Medicine.

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Effects of Omega-3 on Immune System in COVID-19

Larger clinical studies are currently being planned by researchers to demonstrate whether treating COVID-19 patients with Omega-3 fatty acids alters the disease's trajectory. “It is important that even our weakest and frailest patients have the opportunity to participate in studies when the enemy, in this case, COVID-19, is on the attack and that they can fight the disease with the help of the medicine,” says Dorota Religa, senior consultant and professor of geriatrics at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet. “Stimulating the healing of inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids has the potential to lead to a new, cost-effective low-risk treatment for COVID-19, as a complement to existing treatment,” says Magnus Bäck.

Source-Medindia