You have probably already read NLAMLAF’s excellent post on vitamin D wrt COVID 19 with George’s excellent comments. That post addressed the clinical efficacy of vitamin D. Physiologically vitamin D works especially well with SARS because it inhibits renin from whence angiotensin II comes.
You probably know that I favor the ARB losartan (therapeutic), esp in conjunction with Vitamin D (preventative). See (from Mar 2020)
[
www.researchgate.net] (Aliskiren is a renin inhibitor)
These three pics are all you need to see to understand how ARBs and ACEIs work, i.e., by blocking AT1Rs the primary receptor for angiotensin II.
[
media.eurekalert.org] Mar 2020
[
www.mdpi.com] Mar 2020
[
iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com]
The reason SARS 2 is so dangerous so quickly is because of its relationship with Angiotensin II. The virus destroys its entry doorway ACE2, which increases angiotensin II, which upregulates ACE2 (for counter regulation of angiotensin II) and thereby creates new entry doorways for SARS. This is critical for the elderly, those with comorbidities, and males, because their ACE/ACE2 is already elevated.
From Apr 2020
The differential expression of the ACE2 receptor across ages and gender explains the differential lethality of SARS-Cov-2 and suggests possible therapy Apr 2020
“There are striking differences in the lethality of the Covid-19 disease, from more than 90% estimated infected persons that experience only very weak or no symptoms to cases that require ICU assistance and result in death. The fatality rate escalates dramatically with age and is much larger in males than in females. I show here these dramatic variations in fatality rates across age and gender are impressively strongly correlated (r2=0.91 with only one free parameter) with levels of the ACE2 protein in rat lungs, which are in turn qualitatively similar to expression in humans.”
I’ll leave you with one final pic.
[
cdn.jamanetwork.com]
Please note there is no mention of ARBs or ACEIs. Why is that? They’ve been around for quite a while and are widely available. They are also inexpensive with well documented side effects.
I’ll let you answer that question.
