Novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has seriously affected the entire world; moreover, infection and case fatality rate is quite high in countries located in North Hemisphere, where a large proportion of the population is living with Vitamin D (Vit D) deficiency. Vit D is a secosteroid hormone, which plays an important role in calcium and phosphorous homeostasis, and hence bone strength and also has a significant role in the immune health of an individual. It induces the expression of antimicrobial peptides that can decrease viral replication and also reduces the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines while enhancing the level of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Vit D supplementation in daily single doses (3002000 IU/day) for 812 weeks had more protective effect for viral infections than large doses given at fixed intervals (100,000 or 200,000 IU per month or every 3 months). This evidence based review emphasizes the role of Vit D in the immune response to viral infections and proposes the immense value of Vit D supplementation, for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Key words: Coronavirus Disease-19; Cytokine Storm; Immune Response; Influenza; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2; Vitamin D
The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
We use cookies and other tracking technologies to work properly, to analyze our website traffic, and to understand where our visitors are coming from. More InfoGot It!
