The Malnutritional Status of the Host as a Virulence Factor for New Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

Frontiers in Medicine

article

Matteo Briguglio¹  Fabrizio Ernesto Pregliasco²  Giovanni Lombardi⁴  Paolo Perazzo⁶  Giuseppe Banfi¹ 

[1] IRCCS Orthopedic Institute Galeazzi;Health Management, IRCCS Orthopedic Institute Galeazzi;Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, University of Milan;Laboratory of Experimental Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, IRCCS Orthopedic Institute Galeazzi;Department of Athletics, Poznań University of Physical Education;Post-operative Intensive Care Unit & Anesthesia, IRCCS Orthopedic Institute Galeazzi;Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University

关键词: nutritional status;    coronavirus;    SARS-CoV-2;    COVID-19;    infections;    virulence;    host pathogen interactions;    quality of health care;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2020.00146

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

An outbreak of viral pneumonia was reported in Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019, and subsequent sample analyses discovered the involvement of a new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which belongs to the same family of single-stranded enveloped RNA viruses that caused the emergences of SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2012. Symptoms of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 syndrome) may occur within 2–14 days after exposure and can lead to difficulties in cilium beating of airway cells and to alveolar damage (1). Infected patients experience mild to severe manifestations, such as fever, dry cough, dyspnoea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Most cases resolve rapidly, but the infection can still be fatal in about 3% of cases (2). Much like MERS or the coronavirus that infects pigs, the enteric affections can be prominent (3, 4), possibly leading to the loss of absorptive potential. Just a few weeks after its discovery, the COVID-19 has been considered a serious worldwide threat. At the time of writing, Italy is the worst-hit country with 97,689 confirmed cases and 10,781 total deaths (WHO COVID-19 Situation report 70, 30 March 2020). Preliminary data suggest that male older adults and subjects with immune dysfunctions might be more susceptible to the worse viral disease, but there is a need to further investigate the virulence factors. One of the factors most discussed is the malnutritional status of the host, but most of the beliefs are anecdotal. On the other hand, strong evidence supports the notion that any infection outcome is highly dependent on the nutritional status of the host since viruses subject the host’s body to a considerable energetic effort to sustain costly defenses. If a previous malnutritional status exists, or if no nutritional care is provided, the host easily encounters the emptying of body reservoirs with increased harm caused by the virus. A possible link between the nutritional status of the host, the virulence of SARS-CoV-2, and the clinical outcome of COVID-19 needs to be discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY