The Role of Vitamin C in Human Immunity and Its Treatment Potential Against COVID-19: A Review Article

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has left clinicians around the world searching for viable prevention and treatment options to use against the virus. The important physiologic properties of vitamin C have been well documented regarding its use by immune cells and its role as an antioxidant. It has previously shown potential as a prophylactic and treatment option for other respiratory viruses, and because of this, there has been intrigue into whether these positive outcomes translate into a cost-effective prevention and treatment option for COVID-19. To this point, there have only been a few clinical trials performed to assess the validity of this notion, with very few showing definitive positive outcomes when vitamin C has been incorporated into prophylactic or treatment protocols to use against coronavirus. When being used to specifically treat the severe complications that arise from COVID-19, vitamin C is a reliable option to treat COVID-19-induced sepsis but not pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). As a treatment option, high-dose therapy has shown flashes of promise in a few studies although investigators in these studies often subject the testing group to multimodal therapies that include vitamin C as opposed to just vitamin C alone. Given the role that vitamin C has shown to uphold regarding the human immune response, it is currently advised for all individuals to maintain a normal physiologic range of plasma vitamin C through diet or supplements for adequate prophylactic protection against the virus. More research with definitive outcomes will be needed before it is recommended to provide high-dose vitamin C therapy to prevent or treat COVID-19.