Vitamin C Helps Covid-19 Infected Patients By Regulating Iron?

[md_a]

I wonder if the mechanism by which vitamin C helps Covid-19 infected patients is by regulating iron in the body, reducing ferritin, and thus preventing lipid peroxidation.

Hemoglobin, myoglobin and heme compounds can accelerate lipid peroxidation by at least two different mechanisms: the heme ring can react with peroxides to form active oxo-iron species, such as perferryl iron (iron oxidation state) and ferryl, and a molar of excess of peroxide fragmentation of the cyclic tetrapyrrole rings, releasing chelatable iron.

Proteins ferroxidase activity makes a major contribution to extracellular antioxidant protection against iron driven lipid peroxidation.

A reduced availability of copper results in the production of apo-ceruloplasmin, which has no ferroxidase capability and is rapidly degraded in plasma. A reduction of ferroxidase activity due to a decreased presence of ceruloplasmin results in more Fe2+ available for Fenton reactions.

Plasma contains proteins such as haptoglobins and hemopexin specifically to bind and conserve hemoglobin and heme iron respectively.

Binding to these proteins greatly diminishes the ability of heme proteins to accelerate lipid peroxidation.

The major biological function of haptoglobin is binding and recycling of free hemoglobin in plasma to prevent oxidative damage induced by heme iron following hemolysis.

When the hemoglobin-binding capacity of haptoglobin is saturated, its antioxidant role is taken over by hemopexin (heme-binding protein) and by vitamin C.

The inhibition of heme release from hemoglobin by haptoglobin and sequestration of heme by hemopexin suppress hemoglobin-mediated oxidation of lipids and attenuate subsequent endothelial cell damage.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease are two prototypes of devastating diseases caused by pulmonary endothelial cells dysfunction.

Endothelial damage and subsequent clotting is common in severe and critical COVID-19 coronavirus, which may have implications for treatment.


Effect of short-term intravenous ascorbic acid on reducing ferritin in hemodialysis patients

We showed that low amount of IVAA could reduce ferritin level and enhance Hb and TSAT, suggesting improved iron utilization.

Effect of short-term intravenous ascorbic acid on reducing ferritin in hemodialysis patients


The serum levels of CRP, PCT and ferritin are markedly increased in very severe compared with severe COVID-19. Increased CRP, PCT and ferritin level might correlate to secondary bacterial infection and associated with poor clinical prognosis.

Utility of Ferritin, Procalcitonin, and C-reactive Protein in Severe Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease


Lipid peroxidation products (conjugated dienes of fatty acids--initial, malondialdehyde--secondary) are significantly increased in groups of subjects with deficient levels of vitamin C (below the limit from antioxidative point of view), vitamin E and both vitamins, if compared to group with normal vitamin levels (over limit in accordance with antioxidative criterion). The results document that the deficiency in two key antioxidants for lipid peroxidation inhibition means the insufficient defense against free radicals and the increased lipid peroxidation.

Lipid peroxidation in relation to vitamin C and vitamin E levels. - PubMed - NCBI


Pulmonary Vascular Endothelial Cells | IntechOpen

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85577

 

[md_a]

Ray Peat talked in a 2012 radio interview "Antioxidants" about vitamin C.

"... that happens inside the cell during stress. If you're overloaded with iron, when your cell can't use iron properly, any reductant including vitamin c will react to turn the highly oxidized iron into the partly reduced form ferrous iron. In which case that iron then becomes a major oxidant transferring its electrons to fats and proteins, DNA and so on."

About dehydroascorbic acid which is found in meat, milk

"It's functioning in the cell as an oxidant, and that is how it's having a major part of its protective effect... if you have a temporary shut-off of the blood supply ... "

"The presence of the oxidative dehydroascorbic in the cell functions as a substitute for oxygen for a short time. It soaks up these random damaging electrons, being turned back into ordinary ascorbic acid which then becomes water soluble, leaves the cell."

“I have argued that it is vitamin C's laxative action which can interrupt cold symptoms.” RP

“In aging, stress, and malnutrition, the barrier function of the intestine is weakened. Vitamin A and magnesium deficiencies allow macromolecules to enter the blood from the intestine. Injury to the bowel causes "flu-like" symptoms. There have been reports that the viruses of "respiratory diseases" appear in the intestine before they appear in the respiratory tract. Alvarez found that "when a dog gets distemper the gradient of latent period down its small bowel is reversed," and he suggests that in a cold "a systolic, non-progressive type of contraction appears." He says codeine is the best medicine to block a cold. (I have argued that it is vitamin C's laxative action which can interrupt cold symptoms.) Recent research shows that naloxone, the morphine antagonist, can restore normal responses to the stressed bowel. Alvarez was interested in chronic fatigue and "painful fatigue," and remarked that occasionally "a fatigue state will follow a bout with some infection such as influenza." Ray Peat - The Bean Syndrome

 

[Giraffe]

I wonder if the mechanism by which vitamin C helps Covid-19 infected patients is by regulating iron in the body, reducing ferritin, and thus preventing lipid peroxidation.

Ray Peat thinks that ferritin is a marker of inflammation, and that it protects against iron that is released during inflammation. "Ferritin binds iron, and while it's bound it is less likely to produce random free radical damage. -- RP"

Vitamin E is anti-estrogen, anti-clotting, destroyed by iron.

Inflammation increases the need for vitamin E and vitamin C (and other nutrients). Both help to prevent excessive nitric oxide production during various types of stress.

Vitamin C seems to spare and/or recycle vitamin E.

If vitamin E is marginal, vitamin C becomes pro-inflammatory (source: one of @Amazoniac's zillions of posts on vitamin C).

Endotoxin causes inflammation, and vitamin C taken orally (or in doses you can take orally) by some mechanism or the other helps to prevent that too much endotoxin is absorbed from the intestine. At the higher blood concentrations that can only be achieved by intravenous administration there might be a different mechanism, though.

Vitamin E: Estrogen antagonist, energy promoter, and anti-inflammatory

Vitamin E, like progesterone and aspirin, acts within the cellular regulatory systems, to prevent inflammation and inappropriate excitation. Since uncontrolled excitation causes destructive oxidations, these substances prevent those forms of oxidation.

The Shute brothers began using vitamin E to treat circulatory diseases in general, rather than just in pregnant women--blood clots, phlebitis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes all responded well to treatment with large doses.

Aging, estrogen, and progesterone

In the last few years, one of the most common tricks of estrogen promotion is to argue that estrogen protects against heart disease and Alzheimer's disease because it relaxes blood vessels, by increasing the formation of nitric oxide. It does generally increase the formation of nitric oxide, but nitric oxide is a toxic free radical that plays a major role in degenerative diseases. And the inappropriate relaxation of blood vessels, coupled with increased clottability of the blood, is a major cause of pulmonary embolisms and venous disorders.

Receptors, fields, and therapies

Over-production of nitric oxide is involved in many of the symptoms of viral infections, including herpes, and the therapeutic effects of methylene blue suggests that natural resistance to viral infections might depend on maintaining a safely oxidizing redox balance.

Vitamin C and vitamin E both have important roles in preventing excessive nitric oxide production during various types of stress, including sepsis (Wilson, 2009, Wilson and Wu, 2012) and aluminum poisoning (Satoh, 2007). Naringenin and related substances (Chao, et al., 2010; Frasca, et al., 2010) in orange juice make it an especially effective source of vitamin C for controlling nitric oxide.

Iron's Dangers

In the 1960s the World Health Organization found that when iron supplements were given to anemic people in Africa, there was a great increase in the death rate from infectious diseases, especially malaria. Around the same time, research began to show that the regulation of iron is a central function of the immune system, and that this seems to have evolved because iron is a basic requirement for the survival and growth of cells of all types, including bacteria, parasites, and cancer. The pioneer researcher in the role of iron in immunity believed that an excess of dietary iron contributed to the development of leukemia and lymphatic cancers. Just like lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel and other heavy metals, stored iron produces destructive free radicals. The harmful effects of iron-produced free radicals are practically indistinguishable from those caused by exposure to X-rays and gamma rays; both accelerate the accumulation of age-pigment and other signs of aging. Excess iron is a crucial element in the transformation of stress into tissue damage by free radicals.

Ray Peat Email Exchanges - Ray Peat Forum Wiki

Ferritin binds iron, and while it's bound it is less likely to produce random free radical damage. If there is inflammation in the liver or bone marrow, the inflammation can cause iron to be released, and ferritin apparently acts as a buffer, absorbing the released iron.

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"Inflammation likely also drives systemic depletion of ascorbate, as shown in sepsis patients [133], who despite receiving 50 or 200 mg still become deficient in vitamin C due to heightened immune responses in septic shock that increase the rate of oxidation vitamin C, resulting in its depletion [134]. Taken together, the available data support the premise that endotoxemia promotes poor vitamin C status and exacerbates inflammation along the gut-liver axis that increases the demand for antioxidant defenses, especially vitamins C and E."

"Experimental evidence from animals and man has long established that polyunsaturated fat increases the requirement for vitamin E. Therefore, the turnover of membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids, a steady-state remodelling process of membrane phospholipids, may consume vitamin E via the lipoxygenase pathway. The rate of vitamin E consumption is expected to be much higher during inflammation, during which lipoxygenase activity and oxyradical production are much higher in inflammatory cells such as leukocytes and platelets. We have recently shown that oxidized vitamin E can also be regenerated in rat meutrophils (Ho and Chan 1992)."

 

[md_a]

Ray Peat thinks that ferritin is a marker of inflammation, and that it protects against iron that is released during inflammation. "Ferritin binds iron, and while it's bound it is less likely to produce random free radical damage. -- RP"

Vitamin E is anti-estrogen, anti-clotting, destroyed by iron.

Inflammation increases the need for vitamin E and vitamin C (and other nutrients). Both help to prevent excessive nitric oxide production during various types of stress.

Vitamin C seems to spare and/or recycle vitamin E.

If vitamin E is marginal, vitamin C becomes pro-inflammatory (source: one of @Amazoniac's zillions of posts on vitamin C).

Endotoxin causes inflammation, and vitamin C taken orally (or in doses you can take orally) by some mechanism or the other helps to prevent that too much endotoxin is absorbed from the intestine. At the higher blood concentrations that can only be achieved by intravenous administration there might be a different mechanism, though.

Vitamin E: Estrogen antagonist, energy promoter, and anti-inflammatory



Aging, estrogen, and progesterone


Receptors, fields, and therapies



Iron's Dangers


Ray Peat Email Exchanges - Ray Peat Forum Wiki


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I appreciate your help

 

[LucH]

The usefulness of vitamin C (justification) is to boost the production of NK lymphocytes (natural killers). It is then necessary to assist the macrophages to evacuate the residues (LPS absorbed), in order to avoid turning on the immune system (over-reaction). We need fat to evacuate these residues (easier via omega-9 fatty acids – olive oil and avocado – and a little omega-3 via white fish and seafood).
doi: 10.3390/antiox7030041.
AA enhances the proliferation of NK cells, a group of cytotoxic innate lymphocytes.

 

[md_a]

The usefulness of vitamin C (justification) is to boost the production of NK lymphocytes (natural killers). It is then necessary to assist the macrophages to evacuate the residues (LPS absorbed), in order to avoid turning on the immune system (over-reaction). We need fat to evacuate these residues (easier via omega-9 fatty acids – olive oil and avocado – and a little omega-3 via white fish and seafood).
doi: 10.3390/antiox7030041.
AA enhances the proliferation of NK cells, a group of cytotoxic innate lymphocytes.

Thank you!