Saturday, June 27, 2020

Vitamin D Might Help Prevent COVID-19 Infections

Abstract

COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (1), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020 (2). While awaiting a vaccine, several antivirals are being used to manage the disease with limited success (3, 4). To expand this arsenal, we screened 4 compound libraries: a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug library, an angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) targeted compound library, a flavonoid compound library as well as a natural product library. Of the 121 compounds identified with activity against SARS-CoV-2, 7 were shortlisted for validation. We show for the first time that the active form of Vitamin D, calcitriol, exhibits significant potent activity against SARS-CoV-2. This finding paves the way for consideration of host-directed therapies for ring prophylaxis of contacts of SARS-CoV-2 patients.

by Chee Keng Mok, Yan Ling Ng, Bintou Ahmadou Ahidjo, Regina Ching Hua Lee, Marcus Wing Choy Loe, Jing Liu, Kai Sen Tan, Parveen Kaur, Wee Joo Chng, John Eu-Li Wong, De Yun Wang, Erwei Hao, Xiaotao Hou, Yong Wah Tan, Tze Minn Mak, Cui Lin, Raymond Lin, Paul Tambyah, JiaGang Deng, Justin Jang Hann Chu | bioRxiv | Read more:

[ed. Calcitrol (Vitamin D). Can't hurt I guess (pre-print, not peer reviewed). Here's the full text.]