Toward improved human health: Ferroptosis-related “Hyperfoods” as the nutritional supplement in COVID-19

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stimulates a body of studies for better investigating the essential mechanisms and clinical characteristics of this disease. Notwithstanding, the underlying mechanisms of multiple organ failure (MOF) remain unclear. Understanding the mechanism of COVID-19-stimulated programmed cell death (RCD) may contribute to better strategies for these patients. Based on the exploration of COVID-19-related basic science reports and clinical research, we speculate that ferroptosis, a recently identified RCD, might be a substantial stimulator for MOF in COVID-19, and it may act as a novel treatment target. However, the published investigations to determine how ferroptosis works in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection are still lacking. This review reveals new crucial missing links in our prevailing understanding of the mechanisms that ferroptosis-triggered MOF in COVID-19 patients. We also specifically summarize several literatures evidence about the functional food components as the nutritional supplement for COVID-19 by its characteristics of ferroptosis inhibition. We hope this hypothesis may launch a new wave of studies to unveil the relationship between ferroptosis and COVID-19 and explore more ferroptosis-related functional food components in daily life for preventing the COVID-19 and/or to improve the outcome during therapy.