Association between regional selenium status and reported outcome of COVID-19 cases in China

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Ethan W Taylor, Senior Research Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Potentially relevant to the recent appearance of COVID-19 in China is the fact that there is a belt of selenium deficiency running from northeast to southwest in the country and, indeed, China has populations that have both the lowest and the highest selenium status in the world (1). A set of interesting studies published by the Beck laboratory in the 1990s showed that host selenium deficiency increased the virulence of RNA viruses such as coxsackievirus B3 and influenza A (2, 3). Passage through a selenium-deficient animal that was unable to produce sufficient antioxidant selenoproteins for its own protection resulted in the virus mutating to a virulent form that caused more severe pathology (2, 3). Those findings shed light on a human selenium-deficiency disease, a cardiomyopathy known as Keshan disease, named after the area in northeast China where it was endemic. The disease showed a seasonal variation, suggesting a viral cofactor that was later identified as coxsackievirus B3 (2). When the population was supplemented with selenium, the incidence of Keshan disease decreased dramatically (1, 2).

Additional Information

Publication
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 111, Issue 6, June 2020, Pages 1297–1299, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa095
Language: English
Date: 2020
Keywords
letter to the editor, COVID-19, selenium, Keshan disease

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