Abstract
Objectives: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the major health concerns for all the countries around the globe. This study was aimed to study the potential effect of COVID-19 virus on the level of blood ghrelin appetite hormone in order to determine the influence of this infection on the patient appetite.
 Methods: This is a cross-sectional study was conducted between July and the end of August 2020 in the western region of Saudi Arabia. A total of 50 confirmed positive patients with COVID-19 (positive group) and 30 control healthy subjects with negative blood samples (negative group) were collected to determine the level of ghrelin appetite hormone using the human ghrelin (GHRL) ELISA technique. A student’s t-test was carried out to find out the statistical change between different study groups.
 Results: The serum total ghrelin concentrations, on average, were 51.32 pg/mL on positive group and 50.37 pg/mL on negative group, respectively. The difference of ghrelin was statistically insignificant between the two groups (P >0.05). Although the sample size of the study was small, the results showed high number of COVID-19 cases in male than female.
 Conclusion: The current data shows that there are no significant changes in the level of serum ghrelin hormone in COVID-19 patients. Consequently, it might be possible that the ghrelin hormone showed potential changes in the saliva compared to the effect in the blood. Thus, a further analysis of the ghrelin hormone in the saliva of COVID-19 patients will be conducted in the near future.
Highlights
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the major health concerns for all the countries around the globe
This study was aimed to study the potential effect of COVID-19 virus on the level of blood ghrelin appetite hormone in order to determine the influence of this infection on the patient appetite
The sample size of the study was small, the results showed high number of COVID-19 cases in male than female
Summary
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the major health concerns for all the countries around the globe. Recent reports have clarified the most common clinical symptoms of the infected individuals with COVID-19 [3,4,5]. One of these symptoms includes a loss of smell and food taste [4,5]. This may theoretically have a negative effect on the patient appetite. A multicenter European study has shown that some COVID-19 patients have experienced the loss of appetite along with other symptoms [5]. The mechanism of how the coronavirus has influenced the patient appetite is still unclear
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