TY - JOUR T1 - Pleiotropic effect of Lactoferrin in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection: <em>in vivo, in silico</em> and <em>in vitro</em> preliminary evidences JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.08.11.244996 SP - 2020.08.11.244996 AU - Elena Campione AU - Caterina Lanna AU - Terenzio Cosio AU - Luigi Rosa AU - Maria Pia Conte AU - Federico Iacovelli AU - Alice Romeo AU - Mattia Falconi AU - Claudia Del Vecchio AU - Elisa Franchin AU - Stella Lia AU - Marilena Miniero AU - Carlo Chiaramonte AU - Marco Ciotti AU - Marzia Nuccetelli AU - Alessandro Terrinoni AU - Ilaria Iannuzzi AU - Luca Coppeda AU - Andrea Magrini AU - Nicola Moricca AU - Stefano Sabatini AU - Felice Rosapepe AU - Pier Luigi Bartoletti AU - Sergio Bernardini AU - Massimo Andreoni AU - Piera Valenti AU - Luca Bianchi Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/11/2020.08.11.244996.abstract N2 - The current treatments against SARS-CoV-2 have proved so far inadequate. A potent antiviral drug is yet to be discovered. Lactoferrin, a multifunctional glycoprotein, secreted by exocrine glands and neutrophils, possesses an antiviral activity extendable to SARS-Cov-2.We performed a randomized, prospective, interventional study assessing the role of oral and intra-nasal lactoferrin to treat mild-to-moderate and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients to prevent disease evolution. Lactoferrin induced an early viral clearance and a fast clinical symptoms recovery in addition to a statistically significant reduction of D-Dimer, Interleukin-6 and ferritin blood levels. The antiviral activity of lactoferrin related to its binding to SARS-CoV-2 and cells and protein-protein docking methods, provided the direct recognition between lactoferrin and spike S, thus hindering the spike S attachment to the human ACE2 receptor and consequently virus entering into the cells.Lactoferrin can be used as a safe and efficacious natural agent to prevent and treat COVID-19 infection.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -