ABSTRACT
A COVID-19 patient at the limit of hospitalization (SpO2 at 93%), treated at home, found benefit in the use of antiviral medicinal mushrooms. The main agent would be Cordyceps sinensis, used in traditional Chinese medicine from 620 BC. This fungus has been studied by numerous scientists who have demonstrated its antiviral action against HIV-1, the syncytial respiratory virus, the coxsackie B3 virus, the A and “H1N1” influenza viruses, the Epstein Barr Virus. This patient treated at a time when treatments with antiretrovirals, enoxaparin or hydroxychloroquine were not yet permitted at home showed an immediate reversal of symptoms after taking Cordyceps sinensis and beta-glucans extracted from other mushrooms. The antiviral properties of the components of the drug used in this clinical case are described through the literature (mini review). The strong point, which would explain the rapid action (if it is not placebo), is the known affinity of the beta-glucans of the medicinal mushroom wall, towards the integrin-based receptors, usually present on neutrophil leukocytes, but also on the “thorns” of the CoV-2. This strong peculiarity that CoV-2 has become a weak point, if we get to inhibit it before it attacks the cells of the respiratory system.
ABSTRACT
A COVID-19 patient at the limit of hospitalization (SpO2 at 93%), treated at home, found benefit in the use of antiviral medicinal mushrooms. The main agent would be Cordyceps sinensis, used in traditional Chinese medicine from 620 BC. This fungus has been studied by numerous scientists who have demonstrated its antiviral action against HIV-1, the syncytial respiratory virus, the Coxsackie B3 virus, the A and "H1N1" influenza viruses, the Epstein Barr Virus. This patient treated at a time when treatments with antiretrovirals, enoxaparin or hydroxychloroquine were not yet permitted at home showed an immediate reversal of symptoms after taking Cordyceps sinensis and beta-glucans extracted from other mushrooms. The antiviral properties of the components of the drug used in this clinical case are described through the literature (mini review). The strong point, which would explain the rapid action (if it is not placebo), is the known affinity of the beta-glucans of the medicinal mushroom wall, towards the integrin-based receptors, usually present on neutrophil leukocytes, but also on the "thorns" of the CoV-2. This strong peculiarity that CoV-2 has become a weak point, if we get to inhibit it before it attacks the cells of the respiratory system.