During the XV International Conference on Lactoferrin 2021 held in Beijing in December, a session was dedicated on the effects of lactoferrin in containing the symptoms of Covid-19.
On the subject, in September, it was published in the “Journal of Clinical Medicine” an Italian clinical study, concerning the oral administration of lactoferrin in patients affected by Covid-19, conducted using lactoferrin in capsules (Mosiac®, Pharmaguida). We talk about it with Piera ValentiFull Professor of Microbiology at the University of Rome La Sapienza and Member of the International Committee of Experts on Lactoferrin and with Dr. Enrico Naldi, general practitioner of Florence.
Prof.ssa Valenti, what news emerged from the International Conference on Lactoferrin?
“There have been a number of reports confirming the efficacy of lactoferrin in fighting SARS-CoV-2 infections. In fact, various Italian and international researchers have presented the results obtained in in vitro models which have shown how lactoferrin inhibits, in the early stages, the entry of the virus into cells and, consequently, infection by SARS-CoV-2. This inhibition is associated with a link between lactoferrin and specific cell structures and virus spike glycoproteins. Furthermore, the results of the clinical studies presented, even if only on hundreds of Covid-19 patients, have shown that, in addition to vaccines, a winning strategy against Covid-19 can be represented, in patients affected by SARS-CoV-2, from immediate treatment with lactoferrin. Immediate treatment is represented by the administration of 1 g of lactoferrin per day, immediately after the positive result of the molecular swab, administration which is prolonged until the negative result of the same “.
We are struggling with the variants of the virus, is lactoferrin also useful on the variants?
“Yes, Prof Mattia Falconi published in 2021 a work which demonstrates a link between lactoferrin and the Wuhan variant of spike. It is currently publishing data from another in vitro study on the link between lactoferrin and the variants Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron, which confirm the excellent results obtained in clinical trials in which patients affected by the different SARS-CoV-2 variants were treated. always with 1 g of lactoferrin per day “.
Could there be differences between the lactoferrins on the market?
“Unfortunately. In fact, the cost of lactoferrin varies in relation to purity and some companies purchase low-cost and therefore low-quality lactoferrin which, consequently, is not as effective in fighting infections compared to pure preparations. Furthermore, some manufacturers, to avoid international patents already granted on the various functions of lactoferrin, market products in which lactoferrin is mixed with vitamins or zinc, without having performed any scientific research. The International Committee on Lactoferrin, of which I am a member, recommended in the last International Conference on Lactoferrin (Beijing, December 2021) to insist on the Ministries of Health of the individual countries and on EFSA and the FDA to oblige distributors of products based on natural proteins to perform the necessary analyzes to ascertain the quality of the product similar to what happens for drugs “.
Dr. Naldi how long have you been using lactoferrin?
“For about 2 years, that is, since I began to research, I have understood that this natural protein, without adverse effects and present in high concentration in breast milk and in all human secretions, can be particularly effective in anti-SARS activity. CoV-2. If lactoferrin is present in all secretions and is produced by neutrophils, one of the most important cells of innate immunity, it means that it plays a fundamental role in the defenses of our organism “.
You and a colleague of yours were among the first to observe that administering lactoferrin to positive patients resulted in rapid negativization of the tampon and no hospitalization.
“Yes, we started using lactoferrin already at the beginning of the second wave, alone in asymptomatic patients and in combination with anti-inflammatory drugs such as NSAIDs or with other therapies, where necessary for previous pathologies, in paucisymptomatic or moderately symptomatic patients. . It is also important to use it promptly, i.e. at the onset of the first symptoms or immediately after the positive response of the tampon. Our preliminary data on 25 patients with Covid-19 were presented at the Covid Congress which was held in Codogno in December 2020 “.
Did you continue this treatment with your other patients who tested positive?
“Yes, given the excellent results we had obtained from a clinical point of view. Consider that in that period there were many infections, even many hospitalizations and unfortunately also many deaths. The immediate administration of lactoferrin in the asymptomatic or in association with therapy with NSAIDs and other drugs in the symptomatic, continued to provide positive and encouraging results so as to apply this therapeutic scheme even in the third wave, always intervening immediately, without using only tachipirina and apply watchful waiting. We collected these results together with other colleagues who were using lactoferrin treatment and published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. Our patients, about a hundred, treated with lactoferrin, specifically with Mosiac® capsules, were negativized ten days earlier than the group that had not taken lactoferrin. Furthermore, none of our patients were hospitalized and there was no death. And I am continuing to use it, always in a timely manner and that is when the first symptoms appear “.
So you haven’t used the famous protocol, at the center of much controversy, ‘Tachipirina and watchful waiting’?
“No and I am proud not to have done it because this virus is sneaky and it is necessary to draw its weapons immediately … try not to allow it to replicate itself and extinguish the inflammation as soon as possible: against the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and the ‘inflammation, the addition of lactoferrin in the treatment of these patients has proved to be an ideal ally ”.
We hear about symptoms that occur after healing from the virus, a long tail of the infection, called Long Covid. What can you tell us about it?
“As for all of my patients who have had the infection and who I have treated immediately with lactoferrin alone or combined with NSAIDs or other drugs if necessary, none of them have had Long Covid problems.”
In your clinical experience, have you noticed any differences in the timing of tampon negativization in patients with the Omicron variant or previous variants using lactoferrin?
“Yes, with the Omicron variant the negativization occurs in a shorter time than the Delta variant: on average in 5 days using 1 g of lactoferrin, ie 5 capsules a day, away from meals”.