Association of Vitamin D, Zinc and Selenium Related Genetic Variants With COVID-19 Disease Severity
Front Nutr. 2021 Jun 4;8:689419. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.689419. eCollection 2021. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2021.689419
Nikola Kotur 1, Anita Skakic 1, Kristel Klaassen 1, Vladimir Gasic 1, Branka Zukic 1, Vesna Skodric-Trifunovic 2 3, Mihailo Stjepanovic 2 3, Zorica Zivkovic 4 5, Olivera Ostojic 4, Goran Stevanovic 3 6, Lidija Lavadinovic 6, Sonja Pavlovic 1, Biljana Stankovic 1
Statistically significant portion of table for adults
73 adults in Serbia
- CYP2R1 gene semi-activates Vitamin D in the body.
- CYP2R1 gene is in both the liver and tissues
- CYP2R1 gene is essential to use any form of vitamin D: oral, sun, UV, topical, etc.
- A poor CYP2R1 gene results in less Vitamin D being available to the body
- But a poor CYP2R1 can be noticed by a Vitamin D blood test
- DHCR7 gene contorls how much Sun/UVB gets converted into Vitamin d
- Many other poor vitamin D genes are not noticed by blood tests
Genetics category has the following
Vitamin D blood test misses a lot
Vitamin D pages containing "CYP2R1" in title
Vitamin D pages containing "DHCR7" in title
Items in both categories Virus and Genetics:
- Long-COVID associated with 37 poor genes (no Vitamin D genes) – July 2023
- High dose vitamin D fights Folate gene changes by COVID, autoimmune, CVD, ALZ – Oct 2022
- COVID-19 severity associated with 3 vitamin D genes – Oct 2021
- COVID-19 5X worse if poor Vitamin D gene (CYP2R1) – June 2021
- COVID virus alters the activation of 100 vitamin D related genes in the lung – April 2021
- COVID-19 cytokine storms perhaps better stopped by the CYP11A1 Vitamin D pathway – Aug 11, 2020
- Hepatitis C 1.4X more likely if poor CYP24A1 gene – May 2019
Items in both categories Virus and Vitamin D Receptor:
- COVID maximum downregulation of Vitamin D receptor and CYP27B1 resulted in death - Feb 2024
- COVID in hospital stopped by Vitamin D Receptor activators (curcumin, quercetin) – RCT June 2023
- Children with COVID 4X more likely to have poor Vitamin D Receptors (Note: COVID deactivates VDR) – April 2023
- Diabetes 3X more likely if had COVID ICU (VDR was deactivated) - April 2023
- COVID variants protect themselves by deactivating different VDR variants– March 2023
- Dengue Fever decimated by Vitamin D - many studies
- COVID kids were more likely to have a poor VDR (4.3 X), than low Vitamin D (2.6 X) – Sept 2022
- Cancers are associated with low vitamin D, poor vaccination response and perhaps poor VDR – July 2022
- COVID 3X more likely if a poor Receptor (cells get less Vitamin D from the blood) – July 2022
- Long-COVID is now the biggest COVID concern - many studies
- COVID death 12X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor (less D gets to cells) - many studies
- COVID severity, ICU, and mortality all associated with poor vitamin D receptor (but not D, everyone had low D) -Dec 2021
- Different Vitamin D Receptor problems cause different COVID problems - Dec 2021
- COVID-19 severity associated with 3 vitamin D genes – Oct 2021
- Poor Vitamin D receptor blocked Vitamin D from fighting avian influenza viruses (in mice) – July 2021
- Epstein-Barr is yet another virus that deactivates the Vitamin D receptor (COVID later suspected as well)– 2010
- COVID-19 symptoms and comorbidities associated with the type of Vitamin D Receptor – Oct 2021
- Enveloped virus infection (RSV, coronavirus, HIV, etc.) 1.5X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – meta-analysis Dec 2018
- COVID-19 outpatients getting Quercetin nanoemulsion had excellent outcomes (Q increased Vitamin D in cells) – RCT – June 2021
- A virus that most adults have (Cytomegalovirus) decreases the amount of Vitamin D which gets to the cells – Jan 2017
- COVID virus alters the activation of 100 vitamin D related genes in the lung – April 2021
- Common sense COVID-19 risk reduction - masks, social distancing, vitamin D - Oct 2020
- AI is examining 170,000 potential COVID-19 treatments, Vitamin D is one of only 6 found – Sept 4, 2020
- Vitamin D Receptor activation should reduce ARDS associated with COVID-19 - June 2020
- Dengue viral production decreased 1000X if activate Vitamin D Receptor (in lab) – July 2020
- Vitamin D, Quercetin, and Estradiol all increase vitamin D in cells and increase genes which reduce COVID-19 – May 21, 2020
- Quercetin and Vitamin D - Allies Against COVID-19
- Risk of enveloped virus infection is increased 50 percent if poor Vitamin D Receptor - meta-analysis Dec 2018
- Hand, foot, and Mouth disease is 14X more likely if poor Vitamin D Receptor – Oct 2019
- Treating herpes reduced incidence of senile dementia by 10 X (HSV1 reduces VDR by 8X) – 2018
- Severe hand, foot, and mouth virus is 2.9 X more likely if poor Vitamin D receptor – Oct 2018
- Hepatitis B virus reduced by 5X the Vitamin D getting to liver cells in the lab – Oct 2018
- Some enveloped virus are 1.2 X more likely if have a poor Vitamin D Receptor -Aug 2018
- Severe Pertussis is 1.5 times more likely if poor vitamin D receptor – Feb 2016
- Dengue Fever associated with poor vitamin D receptor – July 2002
- Dengue virus 2X to 4X more likely if vitamin D receptor gene problems
Wonder why this study did not find an association between VDR genes and COVID-19
Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life
Background: COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be an unrelenting health threat for more than a year now. The emerging amount of data indicates that vitamin D, zinc and selenium could be important for clinical presentation of COVID-19. Here, we investigated association of genetic variants related to the altered level and bioavailability of vitamin D, zinc and selenium with clinical severity of COVID-19.
Methods: We analyzed variants in genes significant for the status of vitamin D (DHCR7/NADSYN1 rs12785878, GC rs2282679, CYP2R1 rs10741657, and VDR rs2228570), zinc (PPCDC rs2120019) and selenium (DMGDH rs17823744) in 120 Serbian adult and pediatric COVID-19 patients using allelic discrimination. Furthermore, we carried out comparative population genetic analysis among European and other worldwide populations to investigate variation in allelic frequencies of selected variants.
Results: Study showed that DHCR7/NADSYN rs12785878 and CYP2R1 rs10741657 variants were associated with severe COVID-19 in adults (p = 0.03, p = 0.017, respectively); carriers of DHCR7/NADSYN TG+GG and CYP2R1 GG genotypes had 0.21 and 5.9 the odds for developing severe disease, OR 0.21 (0.05-0.9) and OR 5.9 (1.4-25.2), respectively.
There were no associations between selected genetic variants and disease severity in pediatric patients. Comparative population genetic analysis revealed that Serbian population had the lowest frequency of CYP2R1 rs10741657 G allele compared to other non-Finish Europeans (0.58 compared to 0.69 and 0.66 in Spanish and Italian population, respectively), suggesting that other populations should also investigate the relationship of CYP2R1 variant and the COVID-19 disease course.
Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that vitamin D related genetic variants were implicated in severe COVID-19 in adults. This could direct prevention strategies based on population specific nutrigenetic profiles.
Vitamin D gene activation varies around the world
Seem that areas with darker skins have genes that are more efficient at converting UVB from sun into Vitamin D
SRB, Serbian;
CEU, Utah residents with Northern and Western European ancestry (1KGP);
GBR, British in England and Scotland (1KGP);
TSI, Tuscany in Italy (1KGP);
IBS, Iberian populations in Spain (1KGP);
FIN-Finnish European (gnomAD);
NFE-non-Finnish European, including Northwestern European, Bulgarian,
Estonian, Swedish, Southern European, and Other non-Finnish European (gnomAD);
AFR, African (gnomAD);
EA, East Asian (gnomAD);
SA, South Asian (gnomAD);
LAT, Latino/Admixed American (gnomAD);
ASJ, Ashkenazi Jewish (gnomAD).