A new study, published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, found that active forms of vitamin D can suppress the replication and spread of COVID-19.
The findings of the study also reveal that lumisterol, which is created by a chemical mechanism in the body utilizing light, serves to prevent COVID-19.
According to a team of researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences in New Delhi, India, and the University of Western Australia, vitamin D and lumisterol metabolites were able to block two specific enzymes (RdRP and Mrpo) required for the SARS-CoV-2 life cycle.
In September 2020, Anthony Fauci, MD, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, indicated that vitamin D could aid in the fight against COVID-19.
He also stated that 40 percent of the American population is vitamin D deficient.
In this recent work, researchers demonstrated that innovative and physiologically relevant vitamin D and lumisterol derivatives “act on multiple targets, suggesting that they may be effective against original and mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2.”
Researchers also mentioned vitamin D’s low cost and ease of access as advantages. The study’s senior author, Andrzej T. Slominski, MD, PhD, defined lumisterol as a natural substance.
Once eaten, vitamin D gets converted into various active forms by enzymes known as cytochrome oxidases, or CYP enzymes. According to the researchers, their findings may explain a possible mechanism for why low vitamin D levels appear to promote COVID-19 infection and bad outcome in some people.
This is consistent with earlier research that suggest a link between vitamin D insufficiency and poor disease outcomes.
More research and clinical trials are planned to assess the efficacy of vitamin D and lumisterol as COVID-19 antiviral therapeutics in animals and people.
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