The COVID-19 virus has a limited ability to infiltrate cells at first, attacking only one intracellular genetic target, aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AhRs).
Despite this, it causes a wide range of clinical symptoms, implying multiple pathogenic mechanisms.
Researchers at Medical University in Lublin discovered possible COVID-19 prevention and treatment therapies based on calcitriol (vitamin D), dexamethasone, and tocopherol in a recent study (vitamin E).
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These treatments may be able to break COVID-19’s inflammatory “vicious circle.”
The team led by Waldemar A. Turski, MD, PhD, demonstrated how excessive activation of AhRs via the IDO1-kynurenine-AhR signalling pathway, which is used by many pathogens to establish infection, leads to “Systemic AhR Activation Syndrome” in the study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience (SAAS).
They also believe that therapies that target the downregulation of the AhRs and IDO1 genes will reduce the severity of the infection.
SAAS is the cause of inflammation, thromboembolism, and fibrosis, all of which can lead to severe disease and death from COVID-19. When a coronavirus (CoV) infection persists, it activates IDO1 by releasing a large amount of cytokines.
This, in turn, perpetuates the already extensive viral activation of AhRs, and the host immune response’s self-limiting control mechanisms may fail, triggering the cytokine storm that underpins the most severe COVID-19 symptoms.
The researchers demonstrated that CoVs are perfect viruses that leave nothing to chance, as well as how difficult it is to stop them once they have infiltrated a cell.
Many of the features and symptoms of COVID-19, such as thromboembolism, fibrosis, multiple organ injury, and brain damage, may be dependent on AhR activation, according to the researchers.
The researchers also looked into how environmental factors like urban dust and diesel fumes can activate AhRs, making humans more susceptible to pathogens like CoV.
They discovered dexamethasone for AhR and IDO1, and calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D known to inhibit the spread of other viral infections, for the AhR gene.
Similarly, tocopherol, a form of Vitamin E, is known to play a positive role in the response to viral infections and inflammation in ageing and may downregulate IDO1.
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More research and prospective trials are needed to determine whether calcitriol and tocopherol supplementation should be recommended for the prevention of COVID-19 infections, according to the researchers.
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