Pharmacological Efficacy and Mechanism of Vitamin D in the Treatment of “Kidney-Brain” Disorders

Abstract

Accumulating evidences have shown that serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were inversely correlated with the incidence or severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and that vitamin D deficiency might be associated with an increased susceptibility to many of the complications accompanied by COVID-19, such as disorders in kidney and brain. Our previous experimental studies demonstrated that vitamin D and its analogs could protect from kidney diseases, neuroinflammation, and musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoporosis and muscle atrophy, through the suppressive effects on overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in tissues. Moreover, we published a review describing the therapeutic effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for organ injuries associated with COVID-19 by interfering with RAS. In the TCM principle “Kidney dredges brain,” this chapter will emphasize the potential preventive and therapeutic effects of vitamin D on both renal injuries and central nervous system disorders in COVID-19 patients and further elucidate the pharmacological effects with underlying mechanisms of vitamin D in “Kidney-Brain” disorders.

Acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for myasthenia gravis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The baselines of all studies were balanced approximately, see Table 1. Among the 11 included studies, 3 studies [10,12,18] adopted the random number table method for grouping; 2 studies [16,17] took the lottery method; 5 studies [11,14,15,19,20] only mentioned randomness, and 1 study [13] did not mention grouping method. Allocation hiding was not mentioned in all studies.…”

“…Allocation hiding was not mentioned in all studies. The blind method was involved in 2 studies, [10,12] while the rest studies [11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] did not mention it. The results of 1 study [16] were selectively reported, and none of the studies had bias from other sources.…”

“…Jiang, 2015 [15] 20 20 Random Consistent Brompyristine Acupuncture 1,2,4 Wang, 2007 [16] 30 30 Lottery method Consistent Pyristymine + Prednisone Thermoelectric needle 1 Wu, 2010 [17] 20 20 Lottery method Consistent Pyristymine + Prednisone Thermoelectric needle 1,3 Zhang, 2011 [18] 16 the random model was adopted. The results showed that the treatment group surpassed the control group in improving clinical absolute scores, and the difference was statistically significant (MD = −3.48, 95%CI[−5.17, −1.78], P < .01), see Figure 5A.…”