In Vitro Determination of Inhibitory Effects of Humic Substances Complexing Zn and Se on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Replication

This article has been Reviewed by the following groups

Read the full article See related articles

Abstract

(1) Background: Humic substances are well-known human nutritional supplement materials and they play an important performance-enhancing role as animal feed additives. For decades, ingredients of humic substances have been proven to carry potent antiviral effects against different viruses. (2) Methods: Here, the antiviral activity of a humic substance containing ascorbic acid, Se− and Zn2+ ions intended as a nutritional supplement material was investigated against SARS-CoV-2 virus B1.1.7 Variant of Concern (“Alpha Variant”) in a VeroE6 cell line. (3) Results: This combination has a significant in vitro antiviral effect at a very low concentration range of its intended active ingredients. (4) Conclusions: Even picomolar concentration ranges of humic substances, Vitamin C and Zn/Se ions in the given composition, were enough to achieve 50% viral replication inhibition in the applied SARS-CoV-2 virus inhibition test.

Article activity feed

  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.11.456012: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    From these the relative parameters of viral inhibition were calculated compared to the viral effect in an infected, untreated cell culture free of TA. 2.2. Cell culture VeroE6 cell line (ATCC® CRL-1586™) was maintained in DMEM cell culture medium with the addition of 10% m/m Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS, Gibco/ThermoFisher, CA, USA) supplemented with 50 U/ml penicillin and 5 µl/mL streptomycin.
    VeroE6
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Then, this dilution value would serve as the basis to calculate the 50% inhibitory ”dose”: the molar concentration for each ingredient (ID50) The copy numbers were the input for a sigmoidal curve fit using our own in-house developed algorithm and software in Octave mathematical environment.
    Octave
    suggested: (GNU Octave, RRID:SCR_014398)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.