Potenciais benefícios dos ácidos graxos Ômega-3 frente à Covid-19

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Covid-19 is a contagious infection in humans, whose clinical picture can present itself in various ways, from symptoms such as fever, nasal congestion and cough, to severe manifestations such as multiple organ failure and death, related to the exacerbated inflammatory process, characteristic of the disease. Knowing that some nutrients, such as omega-3, have the ability to act positively on immunity and partially inhibit various aspects of inflammation, this study aimed to prepare an integrative review to assess the potential benefits of adequate blood omega-3 status and omega-3 supplementation in patients with covid-19. METHODOLOGY: An integrative review was performed by the electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, including studies published between 2020 and 2022, in English and Portuguese languages, using the following descriptors: Sars-CoV-2, Coronavirus, omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid, inflammation, combined using the Boolean operators AND and OR. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Initially, 347 papers were found, and from this total, 11 were selected in this review from the inclusion criteria. The studies showed that there is an inverse relationship between the levels of omega-3 in blood and the patient's clinical status, as well as an improvement in inflammation after supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids. CONCLUSION: Omega-3 fatty acids are present in lower levels in patients with more severe forms of covid-19 and supplementation provided improvement in the inflammatory process, but there is need for further studies to standardize the treatment with omega-3 supplementation.