Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness

Amiel A. Dror; Nicole Morozov; Amani Daoud; Yoav Namir; Orly Yakir; Yair Shachar; Mark Lifshitz; Ella Segal; Lior Fisher; Matti Mizrachi; Netanel Eisenbach; Doaa Rayan; Maayan Gruber; Amir Bashkin; Edward Kaykov; Masad Barhoum; Michael Edelstein; Eyal Sela

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263069

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness

Amiel A. Dror ,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: amieldror@gmail.com

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7178-6771

⨯
Nicole Morozov,

Roles Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-8626

⨯
Amani Daoud,

Roles Investigation, Validation, Writing – original draft

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Yoav Namir,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Orly Yakir,

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Resources, Software, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Statistical Analysis Division, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Yair Shachar,

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Mark Lifshitz,

Roles Data curation, Software, Validation

Affiliation Computer Data Division, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Ella Segal,

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Lior Fisher,

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Matti Mizrachi,

Roles Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Netanel Eisenbach,

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Doaa Rayan,

Roles Investigation, Resources, Validation, Writing – original draft

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Maayan Gruber,

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
Amir Bashkin,

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel, Endocrinology Unit, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Edward Kaykov,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel, Geriatric Medicine Department, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Masad Barhoum,

Roles Investigation, Resources, Supervision, Validation

Affiliation Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel
⨯
Michael Edelstein,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
[ ... ],
Eyal Sela

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
⨯
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Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness

Amiel A. Dror,
Nicole Morozov,
Amani Daoud,
Yoav Namir,
Orly Yakir,
Yair Shachar,
Mark Lifshitz,
Ella Segal,
Lior Fisher,
Matti Mizrachi

Published: February 3, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263069
See the preprint

Reader Comments

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Low Vitamin D causes low Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

Posted by jamesmhoward on 21 Feb 2022 at 08:52 GMT

It is my hypothesis that low dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is causal in Covid-19 infection and subsequent pathology. Regarding the report of Dror, et al., vitamin D and DHEA are directly related.
It is known that vitamin D receptors are involved in the synthesis of DHEA; it has been found to be involved in bone metabolism: “The study shows that the VDR gene predicts synthesis and/or metabolism of sexual steroid precursor DHEA in parallel with bone mineral density (BMD).” (Horm Metab Res. 2002 Mar;34(3):127-31) I think this relationship will exist in other tissues. Therefore, I suggest low vitamin D levels may be involved in low levels of DHEA.
Low vitamin D is involved in Covid-19 because of low DHEA.

No competing interests declared.

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Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness

Pre-infection 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels and association with severity of COVID-19 illness

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Low Vitamin D causes low Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

Posted by jamesmhoward on 21 Feb 2022 at 08:52 GMT