Omega 3 Fatty Acids and COVID-19: A Comprehensive Review

The rapid international spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a global health emergency in 2020. It has affected over 52 million people and led to over 1.29 million deaths worldwide, as of November 13th, 2020. Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 present with symptoms ranging from none to severe and include fever, shortness of breath, dry cough, anosmia, and gastrointestinal abnormalities. Severe complications are largely due to overdrive of the host immune system leading to “cytokine storm”. This results in disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and death. Due to its highly infectious nature and concerning mortality rate, every effort has been focused on prevention and creating new medications or repurposing old treatment options to ameliorate the suffering of COVID-19 patients including the immune dysregulation. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to be incorporated throughout the body into the bi-phospholipid layer of the cell membrane leading to the production of less pro-inflammatory mediators compared to other fatty acids that are more prevalent in the Western diet. In this article, the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, including their anti-inflammatory, immunomodulating, and possible antiviral effects have been discussed.

In conclusion, the article stated that there are various benefits of omega 3 fatty acids. Taking it as a supplement might be associated with the prevention of the viral entry by changing the composition of fats in the bilipid membrane of cells. It also reduces the proinflammatory mediators thus decreasing inflammation of the lung by several processes such as reducing pulmonary neutrophils recruitment, increasing apoptosis by macrophages, and subsequently decreasing broncho-alveolar IL-6 production.

Hathaway, D.,Panday, K., Patel, M., Rodriguez, I., et. al. (2020). Omega 3 Fatty Acids and COVID 19: A comprehensive Review. Infection and chemotherapy. 52(4): 478-495

Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7779984/

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