{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,30]],"date-time":"2025-07-30T16:12:13Z","timestamp":1753891933708,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,15]],"date-time":"2022-11-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1668470400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Nutr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-2019) still causes a high rate of death globally with no definite curative treatment described. The traditional plant Borage (Borago officinalis L.) is a good source of gamma-linolenic (GLA). We hypothesized that Borage plus syrup (BPS) would be beneficial in severe COVID-19 patients within an intensive care unit (ICU) setting.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>A pilot single center, randomized trial with no placebo was undertaken. A total of 60 PCR-positive severe COVID-19 participants admitted to ICU from June 2020\u2013December 2020 at Masih Daneshvari Hospital Tehran-Iran gave informed consent. The participants were randomly assigned to either Borage Plus Syrup (BPS, 5 ml for 5 days) (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 30) or standard care (IFN-\u03b2 and favipiravir) as a control group (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 30). Pao2\/Fio2, serum ferritin, CRP, bilirubin, IL-6, TNF-\u03b1, ALT, AST, PCT and serum IL-8 was measured upon admission and on release.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>All the measured parameters decreased significantly with BPS treatment. In the control group, most parameters significantly improved apart from AST and PCT. In addition, the suppression of serum TNF levels in the BPS group was greater than that seen in the control group (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> \u2264 0.05). Moreover, the length of ICU stay was significantly lower in the BPS group compared with the control group (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> \u2264 0.05).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our study shows that addition of BPS to the standard treatment regime of COVID-19 patients in ICU improved outcomes and reduced the length of ICU treatment. Natural products could be considered as new approaches for reducting the harmful consequences of COVID-19.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fnut.2022.975937","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,15]],"date-time":"2022-11-15T05:39:50Z","timestamp":1668490790000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Effectiveness of Borage plus syrup on COVID-19 patients in intensive care units"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Seyed MohammadReza","family":"Hashemian","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Esmaeil","family":"Mortaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Navid","family":"Shafigh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shadi","family":"Ziaie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hamidreza","family":"Jamaati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Morteza","family":"Hasheminik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mehdi","family":"Jamalinik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Raziyeh","family":"Erfani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Batoul","family":"Khoundabi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Neda K.","family":"Dezfuli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"Varahram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shahrzad","family":"Ahmadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mahdi","family":"Fahimi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ian M.","family":"Adcock","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,15]]},"reference":[{"journal-title":"COVID Live Update: 142,376,091 Cases and 3,037,353 Deaths from the Coronavirus","year":"2022","key":"B1"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"620","DOI":"10.3906\/sag-2004-168","article-title":"COVID-19, immune system response, hyperinflammation and repurposing antirheumatic drugs.","volume":"50","author":"Tufan","year":"2020","journal-title":"Turk J Med Sci."},{"key":"B3","first-page":"274","article-title":"Update on immunology of COVID-19 disease and potential strategy for controlling.","volume":"19","author":"Dezfuli","year":"2020","journal-title":"Tanaffos."},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"592727","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2021.592727","article-title":"Increased serum levels of soluble TNF-\u03b1 receptor is associated with mortality of ICU COVID-19 patients.","volume":"12","author":"Mortaz","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front Immunol."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"107407","DOI":"10.1016\/j.intimp.2021.107407","article-title":"Serum cytokine levels of COVID-19 patients after 7 days of treatment with favipiravir or kaletra.","volume":"93","author":"Mortaz","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int Immunopharmacol."},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102567","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autrev.2020.102567","article-title":"Should we stimulate or suppress immune responses in COVID-19? 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