β-Sitosterol has potent antiviral activity against influenza viruses

cs3000

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/2/228#

effective against 2 strains, directly viricidal and inhibiting infectivity / replication , at a low concentration ~1ug/ml

Curiously, both compounds exhibited their anti-influenza potency through viricidal actions where they directly target the human seasonal influenza viral particles away from the host MDCK cells

The male death rates of influenza during 2019 were 1.72 higher than females, with mean values of 3.1 ± 0.3304 for males and 1.8 ± 0.1813 for females, demonstrating a significant difference between sexes and substantially biased mortality towards males (want more estrogen or less dht during virus infection?)

its found in coffee as most abundant sterol at 4.1mg - 18.2mg / L, idk how much they used, but obviously that comes with a bunch of other stuff

has some structural similarity to estrogen (& so testosterone too),

but thats because its (more) structurally similar to cholesterol which plays a key role in immunity

Probably dont want long term as has associations with estrogen and lowers DHT, (i noticed a very potent anti-DHT effect dampening mood and creating more tiredness, within a day or 2 at 200mg

but can see this coming in very handy in acute situations (during viral infections, chronic wounds where estrogen also looks to be useful acutely in balance) then dropping when out of this.
It may have activity at estrogen receptors at least shown as some forms, tho its not fully estrogenic in effect idk studies are variable, e.g in some it lowers breast cancer growth (and here beta sitosterol inhibited erA https://mji.ui.ac.id/journal/index.php/mji/article/view/684) but does have some commonalities shown w other forms https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8197182/
& "Shown in an array of in vitro test systems, SIT had weak estrogenic potency, ∼1/1000 to 1/10,000 of the potency of E2 and had almost equal binding affinities for estrogen receptor (ER) subtypes ER-α and ER-β"
"Moreover, unlike its proapoptotic effects in the estrogen-independent breast cancer line MDA-MB-231, SIT (>1 μM) promoted the growth of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cell line MCF-7 in vitro [173]. Nevertheless, in vivo experiments in the same study exhibited the opposite results: not only did SIT (9.8 g/kg diet) not stimulate MCF-7 tumor growth in ovariectomized athymic mice but significantly reduced E2-induced tumor growth and lowered serum E2 concentrations"

These findings suggest that β-sitosterol and β-sitosterol-O-glucoside exert their strong viricidal activities through direct inactivation of the surface hemagglutinin protein, hindering receptor binding and the subsequent viral entry process
It is worth mentioning that the phytoestrogen β-sitosterol has more potent antiviral activity when compared with the active form of the female endogenous estrogen, but with fewer expected side effects and high biological side benefits

Note this lowers DHT (inhibits 5-ar) at the 1ug/ml dose used there
It also has potent wound healing properties

if someone can find out pharmacokinetics / concentration orally would be useful to see. i am guessing thats in the 100s of miligrams

cs3000

@cs3000 said in β-Sitosterol has potent antiviral activity against influenza viruses:

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/2/228#

Effective against 2 strains, directly viricidal and inhibiting infectivity / replication , at a low concentration ~1ug/ml

Note this lowers DHT (inhibits 5-ar) at the 1ug/ml dose used there, but not a concern for me temporarily when getting rid of infection.

if someone can find out pharmacokinetics / concentration orally would be useful to see. i am guessing thats in the 100s of miligrams

more than 1ug/mL plasma beta sitosterol (anti viral dose) in people eating high amounts, 300mg should give at least this in blood if not 5ug/ml
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC535768/pdf/jcinvest00221-0116.pdf

using 5x the dose of flu that it takes to kill 50% of mice,
50mg/kg orally ~ 300mg human dose was effective at increasing survival
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7273125/ (the mg/kg -1 is the same as mg/kg)

IAV infection resulted in 100% (13/13) mortality by 12 days p.i. and rapid and continuous weight loss (Fig. 6f, g). Remarkably, the survival rate of mice that were treated with 50 and 200 mg/kg β-sitosterol was significantly increased to 61.5% (8/13) and 84.6% (11/13), respectively.

It both lowers inflammation, and directly viricidal
maybe best to take in evening as noticed more tiredness trying it. And does lower DHT so maybe good to replenish some dhea for a week after in the pm for a boost in getting levels restored when out of system & infections cleared

{side study, b sitosterol ~200mg worked in restoring B cells % in diabetes model, 30d, recovered from most of the insulin resistance https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10616-020-00382-y}

Mauritio

C3G has similar activities . It's high in elderberry juice as reported in this thread.
(https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/847/cyanidin-3-o-glucoside-c3g-the-next-polyphenolic-star?_=1724528336146)

And elderberry juice is traditionally given when you have the flue in Germany.

There's also some study showing anti-viral effects specifically in Covid.