Vitamin D: New Possible Treatment for COVID-19
Active forms of vitamin D were found to inhibit the replication and expansion of COVID-19, revealed new study.
The study's findings also suggest lumisterol, produced by a chemical reaction in the body using light, works to block COVID-19. Vitamin D and lumisterol metabolites were able to block two specific enzymes (RdRP and Mrpo) required for the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle, according to the team of researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences in New Delhi, India; and the University of Western Australia. The study is published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism and has been chosen as an APSselect article for September.
‘Vitamin D biometabolites can inhibit enzymes necessary for replication and expansion of COVID-19. ’
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, suggested in September 2020 that vitamin D could help fight COVID-19. He also estimated that 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient. Scientists in this new study were able to prove that novel and physiologically relevant vitamin D and lumisterol derivatives "act on multiple targets, suggesting that they may be effective against original and mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2."
Other benefits of vitamin D cited by researchers include its low cost and easy access. Andrzej T. Slominski, MD, PhD, a senior author of the study, described lumisterol as a natural product.
Once vitamin D is consumed, it is metabolized into various active forms by enzymes called cytochrome oxidases or CYP enzymes. Researchers on this study say their findings help explain a possible mechanism for why low vitamin D levels seem to promote COVID-19 infection and poor outcome in certain individuals.
This correlates to other studies showing a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and poor disease outcomes. More studies and clinical trials are planned to test the efficacy of vitamin D and lumisterol as an antiviral therapeutic for COVID-19 in animals and humans.
Source: Newswise