CREMONA – Three years after the start of the pandemic vaccines and anti-virals have made Covid manageablebut the virus has not disappeared. Predicting the evolution of the disease is not easybut one fact is certain: it will be difficult to eradicate e the new emergency is long Covid, which affects 1 in 3 people, even among young people, who are victims of Covid. Indeed, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, there would be 65 million in the world and 17 million in Europe the people grappling with the Coronavirus infection queue. However, the knowledge and progress of the scientific community on the front of the therapeutic treatments available against the post-Covid syndrome are few. In other words, that series of demonstrations that are the long-term consequences of Covid, mainly characterized by “fatigue”, which causes prolonged and disabling exhaustion, more or less intense from person to person, associated with muscle weakness, insomnia and tachycardia.
In this context, in which the SIGG line of research fits, they have aroused particular interest the first results of a new study on long Covid conducted by the Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Hospital Foundation – Catholic University Campus of Rome. This study is part of a line of research already opened by a recent publication in the journal Nutrients, which attested the efficacy of the synergistic action of arginine and vitamin C in reducing chronic tiredness and improving functional performance.
In the new study, being published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the research group coordinated by Francesco Landi, past president of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (SIGG) and director of the Department of Orthopedic and Rheumatological Sciences of Aging at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, Professor of Geriatrics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, has highlighted that in patients with long Covid there is an alteration of the metabolism of argininean amino acid produced naturally by the body, which stimulates nitric oxide, a key enzyme for proper immune and vascular function. The researchers also demonstrated that the administration of 1.6 grams of arginine and 500 mg of liposomal vitamin C for 28 days restores the metabolism of arginine to a normal level and effectively counteracts fatigue.
I STUDY
The study involved 57 people, 46 adults with long Covid eight months after diagnosis and 11 people matched by sex and age with no evidence of previous Sars-CoV-2 infections.
Patients with long Covid were divided into two groups: 23 received the arginine and liposomal vitamin C mix and the other 23 received a placebo over a 28-day period. “Before starting the treatment we measured the concentrations of arginine in the blood, observing significantly lower levels of arginine in patients with long Covid – says Landi, coordinator of the study -. At the end of the 28 days we discovered that the concentrations of arginine in the blood of patients with long Covid had risen, reaching ‘healthy’ levels such as those found in patients belonging to the control group”.
“We demonstrated for the first time that arginine metabolism is impaired in patients with long Covid compared to people with no history of Sars-Cov-2 infection – he adds Matteo Tosato, co-author of the study and Head of the post-Covid Day Hospital Operating Unit, Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Hospital Foundation of Rome -. Arginine is an indispensable amino acid at the base of multiple functions and is mainly involved in the synthesis of nitric oxide, which plays a key role in endothelial reactivity in response to the needs of different tissues, favoring a correct blood supply in relation to their needs thus improving functional performance.
“Currently in the absence of available treatments against a syndrome of which we still know very little, restoring the arginine values could represent a new effective integrative strategy against the ‘fatigue’ from Long Covidwhich can be associated with immune and vascular dysfunctions, which in turn increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease”, concludes Landi.