Title:Vitamin D and its Possible Relationship to Neuroprotection in COVID-19:
Evidence in the Literature
Volume: 22
Issue: 16
Author(s): Saray Quintero-Fabián, Cindy Bandala, Luz Adriana Pichardo-Macías, Itzel Jatziri Contreras-García, Saúl Gómez-Manzo, Beatriz Hernández-Ochoa, José Arturo Martínez-Orozco, Iván Ignacio- Mejía*Noemí Cárdenas-Rodríguez*
Affiliation:
- Laboratorio de Medicina Traslacional, Escuela Militar de Graduados de Sanidad, UDEFA, Mexico City, 11200, Mexico
- Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, Secretaría de Salud, Mexico City, 04530, Mexico
Keywords:
Vitamin D, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Neuroprotection, Neurological manifestations, Clinical studies.
Abstract: Vitamin D is a hormone involved in the regulation of important biological processes such
as signal transduction, immune response, metabolic regulation and also in the nervous and vascular
systems. To date, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection does not have a specific treatment.
However, various drugs have been proposed, including those that attenuate the intense inflammatory
response, and recently, the use of vitamin D, in clinical trials, as part of the treatment of
COVID-19 has provided promising results. It has been observed in some clinical studies that the use
of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) and its two metabolites the circulating form, calcidiol or calcifediol
(25-hydroxycalciferol, 25-(OH)-D), and the active form, calcitriol (1,25-(OH)2-D), in different doses,
improve the clinical manifestations, prognosis, and survival of patients infected with COVID-19
probably because of its anti-inflammatory, antiviral and lung-protective action. In relation to the
central nervous system (CNS) it has been shown, in clinical studies, that vitamin D is beneficial in
some neurological and psychiatric conditions because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant
properties, modulation of neurotransmitters actions, and regulation of calcium homeostasis between
other mechanisms. It has been shown that COVID-19 infection induces CNS complications such as
headache, anosmia, ageusia, neuropathy, encephalitis, stroke, thrombosis, cerebral hemorrhages, cytotoxic
lesions, and psychiatric conditions and it has been proposed that the use of dietary supplements,
as vitamin and minerals, can be adjuvants in this disease. In this review, the evidence of the
possible role of vitamin D, and its metabolites, as a protector against the neurological manifestations
of COVID-19 was summarized.
