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Lactoferrin, one of the major immune factors found in bovine colostrum (BC), may be a potential therapeutic agent against COVID-19 due to its strong antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity, note scientists in the March 3, 2021 issue of Food and Agricultural Immunology. Preliminary results from an in vitro study reported in bioRxiv indicate that lactoferrin was effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The anti-inflammatory activity of lactoferrin can be potentially useful in modulating the cytokine storm activation characteristic of severe COVID-19, which is responsible for the acute respiratory distress syndrome that leads to pulmonary edema, pulmonary failure and hepatic, cardiac, and renal impairment, say the researchers. In addition, lactoferrin can also act to prevent infection by inhibiting the SARS-CoV-2 virus from binding to host cells, say investigators in Frontiers in Immunology.
Scientists reporting from Spain in the International Journal of Research in Health Sciences on the effects of oral and topical lactoferrin supplementation in 75 positive COVID-19 patients for 10 days observed a reduction in the incidence of dry cough, headache and diarrhea, and an improvement in the shortness of breath, muscle pain, tiredness, anosmia and ageusia. The daily lactoferrin dose varied from 256 to 384 mg/day for those treated. A total of 256 people who had contact with the infected patients were also treated with a lower dose of the supplement (128–192 mg/day), which demonstrated a preventive role against infection by the virus. These results suggest that lactoferrin seems to be effective in preventing and treating people affected by COVID-19, according to these researchers.
It is interesting to note that the lactoferrin concentration in BC is 1.5–5.0 mg/mL, which is much higher than the concentration of 0.02–0.75 mg/mL in milk, thus making it an important dietary source of lactoferrin for the human diet.
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