Standardized Olive Leaf Capsules; as a Co-therapy in the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients

Starting from December 2019, novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a tremendous economic loss and unprecedented health crisis across the globe. Discovering an effective and safe drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19 and its associated symptoms became a global urgent demand especially due to limited data that have been released regarding the vaccine efficacy and safety in humans. Reviewing the recent research, Olive leaf was selected as a potential co-therapy supplement for the treatment and the improvement of clinical manifestations in COVID-19 patients. Olive leaves reported to be rich in phenolic compounds such as oleuropein, hydroxy tyrosol, verbascoside, apigenin-7-glucoside and luteolin-7-glucoside which has been reported as anti-SARS-CoV-2 metabolites in recent In silico, computational and in vitro studies. In addition, olive leaf extract was previously reported in several in vivo studies for its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, immunomodulatory and anti-thrombotic activities which is of a great benefit in the control of associated inflammatory cytokine storm and disseminated intravascular coagulation in COVID-19 patients. A placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt will be conducted. RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 adults showing mild to moderate disease will be enrolled in the study. Patients presenting with multi-organ failure, ventilator support, and chronic diseases (except diabetes mellitus and hypertension) were excluded. Patients were randomly assigned in 1:1 ratio to receive standardized olive leaves capsules (containing 20-50% oleuropein) or placebo up-to 10 days along with standard care. The expected outcomes included symptom alleviation, viral clearance, improvement of analysis (CBC, CRP, LDH, ESR, Ferritin, D-dimer, creatinine, ALT and AST) and a 10-day mortality in intention-to-treat population.