Beneficial effects and possible mechanism of intake coffee for COVID-19: A meta-analysis and molecular docking

To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of regular coffee intake in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 infection, and to explore its possible mechanism of action using computer molecular docking technology.

We searched for relevant ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and China Biomedicine, Wanfang, CNKI, VIP databases to summarize studies on the effectiveness of coffee in preventing or treating COVID-19. The search period lasted until August 1, 2024. The 2 researchers screened the literature and data using Rev Man 5.4 software (the Cochrane Collaboration, 2020) for data analysis and used Schrodinger 2018-1 software to explore possible mechanisms of action.

A total 5 studies with 39,290 participants were included. The results showed that compared with the control group that drank less or no coffee, the experimental group that drank more than 1 cup of coffee per day had significantly higher benefit rates (RD = 0.17, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.08-0.27, P = .0005), including lower infection rates and improved recovery rates from COVID-19 (RD = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.13-0.35), P < .0001). Molecular docking showed that CGA and caffeine present in coffee could combine with key amino acid residues of ACE2 or 3CL proteins to form hydrogen bonds.

Regular consumption of coffee may have certain preventive or therapeutic effects on COVID-19, and the mechanism of action may be that CGA or/caffeine in coffee may be related to the formation of hydrogen bonds by key amino acid residues such as ARG273/HIE345 of ACE2 and CYS145 of 3CL. Owing to the limited number and quality of the included studies, the effect evaluation needs to be further confirmed using clinical randomized controlled trials. The exact mechanism of action requires further verification at the molecular level, both inside and outside cells.