Department of Health Sciences (DiSS), Università del Piemonte Orientale (UPO), 28100 Novara, Italy.
IRCAD (Interdisciplinary Research Center of Autoimmune Diseases), Università del Piemonte Orientale (UPO), 28100 Novara, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Mar 27;25(7):3712. doi: 10.3390/ijms25073712.
To date, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still represents a great clinical challenge worldwide, and effective anti-COVID-19 drugs are limited. For this reason, nutritional supplements have been investigated as adjuvant therapeutic approaches in disease management. Among such supplements, vitamin D has gained great interest, due to its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory actions both in adult and pediatric populations. Even if there is conflicting evidence about its prevention and/or mitigation effectiveness in SARS-CoV-2 infection, several studies demonstrated a strict correlation between hypovitaminosis D and disease severity in acute COVID-19 and MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children). This narrative review offers a resume of the state of the art about vitamin D's role in immunity and its clinical use in the context of the current pandemic, specially focusing on pediatric manifestations and MIS-C. It seems biologically reasonable that interventions aimed at normalizing circulating vitamin D levels could be beneficial. To help clinicians in establishing the correct prophylaxis and/or supportive therapy with vitamin D, well-designed and adequately statistically powered clinical trials involving both adult and pediatric populations are needed. Moreover, this review will also discuss the few other nutraceuticals evaluated in this context.
迄今为止,SARS-CoV-2 大流行仍然是全球范围内的巨大临床挑战,有效的抗 COVID-19 药物有限。出于这个原因,营养补充剂已被作为疾病管理的辅助治疗方法进行研究。在这些补充剂中,维生素 D 因其在成人和儿科人群中的免疫调节和抗炎作用而备受关注。尽管关于其在 SARS-CoV-2 感染中的预防和/或缓解效果存在相互矛盾的证据,但多项研究表明,维生素 D 缺乏症与急性 COVID-19 和 MIS-C(儿童多系统炎症综合征)的疾病严重程度之间存在严格的相关性。本综述概述了维生素 D 在免疫中的作用及其在当前大流行背景下的临床应用,特别关注儿科表现和 MIS-C。干预措施旨在使循环维生素 D 水平正常化,这似乎在生物学上是合理的,可能会有益。为了帮助临床医生确定用维生素 D 进行正确的预防和/或支持治疗,需要设计良好且在统计学上具有足够效力的涉及成人和儿科人群的临床试验。此外,本综述还将讨论在这方面评估的其他几种营养保健品。