Can high doses of vitamin C administered through an IV to people with COVID-19 infections severe enough to necessitate oxygen treatment keep the patients' conditions from further deteriorating to the point that they require ventilators?
Dr. Brian Davis is testing the safety of the vitamin therapy in a research study through the Central Virginia VA Health Care System.
Davis is a gastroenterologist and a hepatologist at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center. The study began last week and entails infusions of vitamin C every two hours over four days. They will be administered to patients who need oxygen treatment and have a positive diagnosis for COVID-19, according to a release.
Davis says that researchers want to determine whether the vitamin will mitigate damage in the lungs caused by the virus and whether the treatment is safe and well-tolerated. If it works, the treatment could keep patients out of ICUs and off ventilators. It's hoped that the treatment may boost the immune system and healing of lung tissue and stabilize blood pressure.
Davis cites the work of a VCU researcher, Alpha Fowler, on the use of vitamin C in improving survival in patients with sepsis, a condition that may occur when the body's reaction to an infection goes awry and can lead to organ failure and death. Fowler found in a three-year study that septic patients receiving the vitamin therapy had a lower mortality rate, and that recipients on average required three fewer days in the ICU and were out of the hospital a week earlier.
Davis notes that when someone is septic, the body depletes its vitamin C. The body doesn't make vitamin C, so we usually have to acquire it through our diet. It plays several crucial roles in our immune system health and helps healthy tissue.
About 20 patients will be signed up for phase one of the study, and it may be continued, says Davis. The patients consent to participate and are not eligible if they have chronic conditions such as kidney problems or diabetes. VA patients are a vulnerable population, with many having multiple chronic health issues.
“There's a lot of interest here in developing new therapies,” says Davis.
The metro Richmond area medical community is exploring several different treatments for COVID-19 infections. Here's a sampling:
- Plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 is being used to treat other patients at VCU Medical Center. The plasma is thought to contain antibodies to the novel coronavirus and may help people with severe COVID-19 infections by giving a boost to the immune system. VCU is seeking people who have recovered from COVID-19 and is creating a plasma donor registry.
- VCU is also seeking participants for a survey looking at people who have tested positive for COVID-19, and people who've experienced a change since January in their sense of smell or taste, changes that have been associated with COVID-19.
- An investigative treatment that provides a gas that may have antiviral properties to COVID-19 patients in Richmond via a device, the INOpulse inhaled nitric oxide system, is in use at Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital, according to Dr. Shilpa Johri of Pulmonary Associates of Richmond.
- And Richmond vascular surgeon Dr. Jeff Brown, who had a severe case of COVID-19 but has recovered, shared the story of his innovative treatment by Dr. Drew Jones of Pulmonary Associates of Richmond with a rheumatoid arthritis medication to halt a potentially deadly response to inflammation in a Richmond Times-Dispatch feature by Eric Kolenich.
