Sint-Janskruid en Corona-virus

Nog nooit zo vroeg in het seizoen bloeiend sint janskruid gezien. Het zal zeker wel met de opwarming van de aarde te maken hebben of wil Sint Jan aan het Coronavirus de doodsteek geven?

Hypericum perforatum L. belongs to the genus Guttiferae, which contains approximately 400 species all over the world. The extract of H. perforatum contains several active compounds, including flavonoids, naphthodianthrones, and phloroglucinol derivatives (Napoli et al., 2018; Barnes et al., 2019). Several reports have shown that H. perforatum extract had antiviral effects, such as influenza A virus, porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus (PRRSV), and HIV (Barnes et al., 2001; Birt et al., 2009; Pu et al., 2009a; Pu et al., 2009b; Pu et al., 2012). Like influenza A virus and PRRSV, IBV also belongs to RNA virus, but these PRRSV and IBV belong to different viral families. 

Phytother Res. 2020 Jun 5. Can Hypericum perforatum (SJW) prevent cytokine storm in COVID‐19 patients?  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7300500/

Actually, from our experimental studies on natural compounds able to protect pancreatic β‐cells against cytokine‐induced damage and death (Menegazzi et al., 2008), we became aware that Hypericum perforatum (St. John's Wort, SJW) extract, as well as its main polyphenol component hyperforin (HPF), can potently counteract the pro‐inflammatory effects of various cytokines. Indeed, both SJW extract and HPF alone prevented cytokine effects not only in β‐cell lines but also in isolated rat and human pancreatic islets (Novelli et al., 2014) ........We firmly believe that the anti‐inflammatory SJW/HPF treatment deserves evaluation in COVID‐19 patients. Such a treatment, that offers the additional advantages of being orally administrable, well tolerated, and inexpensive, holds considerable promise to prevent or limit the effects of the cytokine storm through the simultaneous inhibition of NF‐κB, JAK/STAT, and MAPK pathways, that is, the three majors signaling and transduction pathways involved in cytokine‐induced local and systemic inflammatory changes. As such, SJW/HPF therapy appears to be compatible with other clinically pertinent treatments, for example, administration of selected antiviral agents, including chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine and/or intravenous supply of human immunoglobulins and LMW heparin.