Effect of spirulina on risk of hospitalization among patients with COVID-19: the TOGETHER randomized trial.
Am J Clin Nutr
; 120(3): 602-609, 2024 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39232602
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Algae-derived nutraceuticals, such as spirulina, have been reported to have biological activities that may minimize clinical consequences to COVID-19 infections.OBJECTIVES:
This study aimed to determine whether spirulina is an effective treatment for high-risk patients with early COVID-19 in an outpatient setting.METHODS:
The TOGETHER trial is a placebo-controlled, randomized, platform trial conducted in Brazil. Eligible participants were symptomatic adults with a positive rapid test for SARS-CoV-2 older than 50 y or with a known risk factor for disease severity. Patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo or spirulina (1 g twice daily for 14 d). The primary end point was hospitalization defined as either retention in a COVID-19 emergency setting for >6 h or transfer to tertiary hospital owing to COVID-19 at 28 d. Secondary outcomes included time-to-hospitalization, mortality, and adverse drug reactions. We used a Bayesian framework to compare spirulina with placebo.RESULTS:
We recruited 1126 participants, 569 randomly assigned to spirulina and 557 to placebo. The median age was 49.0 y, and 65.3% were female. The primary outcome occurred in 11.2% in the spirulina group and 8.1% in the placebo group (odds ratio [OR] 1.24; 95% credible interval 0.84, 1.86). There were no differences in emergency department visit (OR 1.21; 95% credible interval 0.81, 1.83), nor time to symptom relief (hazard ratio 0.90; 95% credible interval 0.79, 1.03). Spirulina also not demonstrate important treatment effects in the prespecified subgroups defined by age, sex, BMI, days since symptom onset, or vaccination status.CONCLUSIONS:
Spirulina has no any clinical benefits as an outpatient therapy for COVID-19 compared with placebo with respect to reducing the retention in an emergency setting or COVID-19-related hospitalization. There are no differences between spirulina and placebo for other secondary outcomes. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT04727424.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Dietary Supplements
/
Spirulina
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
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COVID-19 Drug Treatment
/
Hospitalization
Limits:
Aged
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Female
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Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
America do sul
/
Brasil
Language:
En
Journal:
Am J Clin Nutr
/
Am. j. clin. nutr
/
American journal of clinical nutrition
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
United States