Green vegetables could protect us against viruses
The research team cautions against buying supplements of the chemical, called sulforaphane.
Published
2 years ago onBy
Talker NewsBy Jim Leffman via SWNS
A chemical found in some green vegetables could protect against viruses that cause diseases such as COVID-19 and the common cold, according to a new US study.
The active chemical, sulforaphane, is found abundantly in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, kale and sprouts.
The phytochemical, already found to have anti-cancer effects, can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and another human coronavirus in cells and mice.
The research team from Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore, MD, cautions against buying sulforaphane supplements saying the research is in the early stages and they still need to do human studies.
The researchers used purified, synthetic sulforaphane purchased from commercial chemical suppliers in their experiments.
COVID-19 has already killed more than six million people worldwide, and studies have shown that common colds cost an estimated economic loss of $25 billion in the U.S. alone each year.
First identified as a “chemopreventive” compound by a team of Johns Hopkins scientists decades ago, natural sulforaphane is derived from common food sources.
Previous studies, including those at Johns Hopkins Medicine, have shown sulforaphane to have cancer and infection-prevention properties by way of interfering with certain cellular processes.
Microbiologist Dr. Lori Jones-Brando, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said: “When the COVID-19 pandemic started, our multidisciplinary research teams switched our investigations of other viruses and bacteria to focus on a potential treatment for what was then a challenging new virus for us.
“I was screening multiple compounds for anti-coronavirus activity and decided to try sulforaphane since it has shown modest activity against other microbial agents that we study.”
In one experiment reported in the Nature journal Communications Biology, the research team first exposed cells to sulforaphane for one to two hours before infecting the cells with SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronavirus, HCoV-OC43.
They found that low concentrations of sulforaphane reduced the replication by 50% of six strains of SARS-CoV-2, including the delta and omicron variants, as well as that of the HCoV-OC43 coronavirus.
The investigators also observed similar results with cells that had been previously infected with the viruses, in which the protective effects of sulforaphane were seen even with an already established virus infection.
The group also examined the effects of sulforaphane when combined with remdesivir, an antiviral medication used to shorten the recovery of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 infections.
In their findings, remdesivir inhibited 50 percent of the replication of HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2.
Further, the research team reports that sulforaphane and remdesivir interacted synergistically at several combination ratios to reduce by 50% the viral burden in cells infected with HCoV-OC43 or SARS-CoV-2.
Dr. Alvaro Ordonez said: “Historically, we have learned that the combination of multiple compounds in a treatment regimen is an ideal strategy to treat viral infections.
“The fact that sulforaphane and remdesivir work better combined than alone is very encouraging.”
The researchers then conducted studies in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
They found that giving 30 milligrams of sulforaphane per kilo of body weight to mice before infecting them with the virus significantly decreased the loss of body weight that’s typically associated with virus infection (7.5% decrease).
Further, the pretreatment resulted in a statistically significant decrease in both the viral load, or amount of virus, in the lungs (17% decrease) and upper respiratory tract (9% decrease) as well as the amount of lung injury (29% decrease) compared with infected mice that were not given sulforaphane.
The compound also decreased inflammation in the lungs, protecting the cells from a hyperactive immune response that seems to be one of the driving factors that has caused many people to die from Covid-19.
Dr. Ordonez said: “What we found is that sulforaphane is antiviral against HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses while also helping control the immune response.
"This multifunctional activity makes it an interesting compound to use against these viral infections, as well as those caused by other human coronaviruses.”
The team plans to conduct studies in humans to evaluate if sulforaphane can be effective in preventing or treating these infections.
Dr. Jones-Brando added: “Despite the introduction of vaccines and other medications that can have side effects, effective antiviral agents are still necessary to prevent and treat COVID-19, particularly considering the potential effects of new coronavirus variants arising in the population.
“Sulforaphane could be a promising treatment that is less expensive, safe and readily available commercially.”
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