Effect of Treatment with Zinc Gluconate or Zinc Acetate on Experimental and Natural Colds

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 1202 - 1208
• Main Authors: Turner, Ronald B., Cetnarowski, Wes E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL The University of Chicago Press 01-11-2000; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Acetates; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Common cold; Common Cold - drug therapy; Common Cold - pathology; Common Cold - virology; Diseases; Double-Blind Method; Gluconates; Gluconates - adverse effects; Gluconates - therapeutic use; Headache - chemically induced; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Major Articles; Medical sciences; Medications; Middle Aged; Nausea - chemically induced; Placebos; Rhinovirus; Rhinovirus - drug effects; Severity of Illness Index; Symptoms; Time Factors; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the respiratory system and ent viral diseases; Viruses; Zinc; Zinc - adverse effects; Zinc - therapeutic use; Zinc Acetate - adverse effects; Zinc Acetate - therapeutic use; Gluconic acid; Human; Respiratory disease; Picornaviridae; Common cold; Zinc compound; Acetate; Biological activity; Human rhinovirus; Infection; Virus; Chemotherapy; Viral disease; ENT disease; Comparative study; Rhinovirus
• ISSN: 1058-4838; 1537-6591
• DOI: 10.1086/317437

Two clinical trials were conducted, one involving 273 subjects with experimental rhinovirus colds and the other involving 281 subjects with natural colds. Symptomatic volunteers were randomized to receive oral lozenges containing zinc gluconate (13.3 mg), zinc acetate (5 or 11.5 mg), or placebo. The median duration of illness in zinc gluconate recipients was 2.5 days, contrasted with 3.5 days in the placebo recipients (P = .035), in the experimental colds study. Zinc gluconate had no effect on symptom severity and zinc acetate had no effect on either duration or severity. Neither formulation had an effect on the duration or severity of natural cold symptoms. Evaluation of blinding, taste, and adverse events revealed no significant differences among the 4 treatment arms. Zinc compounds appear to have little utility for common-cold treatment.