Title : Interdependent antioxidant therapy in covid-19 and other critical diseases
Abstract:
Cytokine storm has recently been recognized as the key pathology responsible for the severe symptoms of Covid-19 and other viruses and non-viral agents. The underlying biochemical cause of cytokine storms is excessive oxidative stress. Cytokine storm and its associated oxidative stress appear to be a universal non-specific mechanistic pathway common among many causative agents, for example, viruses, that leads to severe clinical disease. A biochemical sequence known as "lipid peroxidase chain reaction" (LPCR) plays a critical role in oxidative stress and cytokine storm. Prevention and blocking the occurrence of cytokine storm/oxidative stress appears to be a logically sound and effective strategy to prevent the severe symptoms of Covid-19. If this could be performed worldwide, it could reduce the devastating medical, economic and societal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Preventing or blocking LPCR and excessive oxidative stress requires intact antioxidant systems, especially the antioxidant vitamins and nutrients, including vitamins C, E, CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid, glutathione and niacin (to promote NADP+/NADP), selenium and others. Insufficiency or absence of any of these antioxidant agents may render these antioxidant systems ineffective, which may be responsible for the inconsistent results of antioxidant therapies in the literature. Here we propose an integrative therapy that includes these antioxidant vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. The "universal and non-specific nature" of cytokine storm/oxidative stress makes possible a pre-emptive treatment to prevent or block cytokine storm/oxidative stress induced by severe diseases, even before full recognition of the underlying causative agent. This is very significant because it allows us to potentially prevent and block a pandemic of a new virus or a new viral mutant when it happens without requiring the extended time needed to develop a specific drug or vaccine treatment. With the seemingly endless mutations of SARS-Cov-2, we may still have time to apply this strategy to break the Covid-19 pandemic.
