Coffee can protect against Corona: German researchers publish the result of a laboratory experiment
Created: 11/05/2022 10:39 am
By: Juliane Gutmann
Has the Corona cup passed you by so far?
That could be due to your coffee consumption - at least that's the theory of German researchers.
The daily cup of coffee is said to have many positive effects.
The ingredients of the coffee bean are said to be able to prevent dementia, protect the liver from alcohol damage and even have a life-prolonging effect.
A new aspect has now been added to the list of presumed positive effects of coffee: As researchers from Jacobs University in Bremen have discovered, a compound in coffee is said to inhibit the interaction between the spike protein of the coronavirus and the corresponding receptor of the human cell.
This could potentially prevent infection, according to a press release from Jacobs University.
It cannot be clearly denied whether Jacobs University in Bremen currently has business ties with the Jacobs coffee brand.
But the fact is that the private university is named after the Bremen coffee entrepreneur Johann Jacobs.
According to Spiegel
, the naming is due
to the fact that Klaus J. Jacobs, founder of the Jacobs Foundation, invested a total of 200 million euros in the private university in the 2000s and thus saved it from a financial crisis.
With coffee against Corona?
Information from Jacobs University Bremen suggests this.
© Diego Martin/Imago
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Coffee inhibits the activity of corona viruses - but so far only in laboratory tests
Professor Nikolai Kuhnert from Jacobs University and his team had investigated in the laboratory how components of coffee and corona viruses interact with each other.
They found that a chemical compound in the coffee bean inhibits the ability of the spike protein of coronaviruses to dock to the so-called ACE-2 receptors in human cells.
The researchers' conclusion: coffee could possibly prevent corona infections.
The problem: The scientists were only able to prove the effect under laboratory conditions, but not in clinical trials on humans.
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However, according to biochemical research, it is plausible that enjoying a cup of coffee offers effective protection against coronavirus infection, according to the publication on the Jacobs University website.
The team led by chemist Professor Nikolai Kuhnert was able to show experimentally that the chemical compound 5-caffeoylquinic acid contained in coffee reduces the interaction between the Sars-CoV-2 spike protein and the ACE-2 receptor, the docking point of the virus on the human cell by a factor of 50, according to the researchers.
A cup of coffee a day could already have a corona-inhibiting effect
A 0.2 liter cup of filter coffee would contain about 100 milligrams of 5-caffeoylquinic acid, according to Jacobs University.
Experiments in the laboratory have shown that 5-caffeoylquinic acid in this concentration is high enough to prevent the spike protein from docking to the ACE-2 receptor - and thus also to inhibit the infection process, it is said.
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“As chemists, we cannot answer the practical question of whether drinking coffee could really serve as a preventive measure to protect against infection.
But we can say that it is plausible," study leader Nikolai Kuhnert is quoted as saying in the press release.
According to the scientists, further research would have to follow to check whether coffee also has a coronavirus-inhibiting effect in practice.
