Another Reason to Add Quercetin to Your Daily Supplements

I’ve previously reviewed the similarities between the flavonoid quercetin and the drug hydroxychloroquine, discussing the possibility of using quercetin in lieu of the drug against COVID-19. We’re now also starting to see quercetin mentioned more often in the scientific literature on COVID-19.

For example, a review article¹ published in the June 19, 2020, issue of Frontiers in Immunology highlights quercetin’s usefulness as a COVID-19 treatment, especially in conjunction with vitamin C. Quercetin is also featured in a review² of emerging COVID-19 research published in the Integrative Medicine journal. As reported by MedPage Today:³

“Quercetin … promotes SIRT2, which then inhibits the NLRP3 inflammasome assembly involved with COVID-19 infection, said Samuel F. Yanuck, DC, of the Program on Integrative Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who co-authored a review⁴ of emerging research on the subject. It also plays a role in facilitating zinc transportation across lipid membranes, Yanuck said.

‘It’s not a bizarre or experimental substance and given it has these potential important biological roles, I think it’s worth being considered as part of an overall strategy,’ Yanuck told MedPage Today, adding that quercetin would need to be one part of a multifactorial treatment regimen …

COVID-19 has been associated with high levels of interleukin-6, depleted levels of interferons, and a cytokine storm that damages the body and is related to respiratory failure, said Ruben Colunga Biancatelli, MD, of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and first author of a paper on quercetin and vitamin C as a potential therapy for treating SARS-CoV-2 in Frontiers in Immunology.⁵