A randomized clinical study to evaluate the possible antifibrotic effect of zinc sulfate in chronic HCV patient receiving direct-acting anti-viral therapy.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

This study aimed to assess the potential antifibrotic impact of zinc sulfate in chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) patients receiving direct-acting antiviral therapy.

Why It Was Studied

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05465434, On 19/7/2022.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This randomized controlled study included 50 chronic HCV-infected patients with fibrosis stage (F1 & F2).

Baseline and 3-month post-intervention assessments included evaluating serum levels of hyaluronic acid, transforming growth factor beta-1, and fibronectin.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Furthermore, indices of liver fibrosis, such as the Fibrosis Index based on the 4 factors (FIB-4) and the Aspartate Transaminase-to-Platelet-Ratio Index (APRI), were calculated during these assessments.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Zinc Sulfate, Hepatitis C, Chronic, Antiviral Agents, Liver Cirrhosis, Hyaluronic Acid, Fibronectins and Antifibrotic Agents.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Liver fibrosis and Transforming growth factor beta 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2025 (Inflammopharmacology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.