2.4. Intervention
The patients allocated to the treatment group received a daily dose of 800 mg of bovine lactoferrin. Specifically, the patients were given 2 capsules of Mosiac (Pharmaguida Srl, Rome, Italy), 200 mg every 12 h before meals for 30 days. The patients allocated to the control group received the placebo, consisting of inert components (cornstarch powder) administered as capsules identical to the lactoferrin ones, with the same posology. Each capsule was evaluated for lactoferrin content corresponding to about 200 mg of lactoferrin. The purity of the lactoferrin, checked using SDS-PAGE and silver nitrate staining, was 98.5%. The concentration of the lactoferrin was assessed using UV spectroscopy on the basis of an extinction coefficient of 15.1 (280 nm, 1% solution). The lactoferrin iron saturation was about 12%, as detected using optical spectroscopy at 468 nm on the basis of an extinction coefficient of 0.54 (100% iron saturation, 1% solution). Both groups of patients received the same product batch, produced ex novo ad hoc and specifically prepared for the study. All these quality assessments were run prior to the beginning of the study by third-party entities at La Sapienza University in Rome, who remained blinded to all study procedures. Both oral lactoferrin and placebo were kindly supplied by Pharmaguida Srl. The interventions were administered in addition to the standard of care in clinical practice for patients with COVID-19. Pharmacological therapies were prescribed following the most updated guidelines and the best clinical practice at the time of study conduction, according to each patients’ individual condition. 