COvid-19 and Vitamin D Supplementation: a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of High Dose Versus Standard Dose Vitamin D3 in High-risk COVID-19 Patients (CoVitTrial)

Vitamin D is a secosteroid hormone produced by the skin during Summer exposure to UVB rays. Hypovitaminosis D is common in Winter (October to March) at Northern latitudes above 20 degrees North, and from April to September at Southern latitudes beyond 20 degrees below the equator.

In the past, coronaviruses and influenza viruses have exhibited very high seasonality, with outbreaks occurring preferentially during the Winter. The Covid-19 pandemic is indeed more severe above Winter latitudes of 20 degrees, while it remains until now less severe in the Southern hemisphere, with a much lower number of deaths.

Preclinical research suggests that the SARS-Cov-2 virus enters cells via the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Coronavirus viral replication downregulates ACE2, thereby dysregulating the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and leading to a cytokine storm in the host, causing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Research also shows that vitamin D plays a role in balancing RAS and in reducing lung damage. On the contrary, chronic hypovitaminosis D induces pulmonary fibrosis through activation of RAS. Similarly, hypovitaminosis D has been strongly associated in the literature with ARDS, as well as with a pejorative vital prognosis in resuscitation but also in geriatric units, and with various comorbidities associated to deaths during SARS-Cov-2 infections. Conversely, vitamin D supplementation has been reported to increase immunity and to reduce inflammatory responses and the risk of acute respiratory tract infections.

High-dose oral vitamin D3 supplementation has been shown to decrease short-term mortality in resuscitation patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (17% absolute risk reduction). It is considered safe to take oral vitamin D supplementation at doses up to 10,000 IU/day for short periods, particularly in older adults, i.e. a population that is mostly affected by hypovitaminosis D and who should receive at least 1,500 IU of vitamin D daily to ensure satisfactory vitamin D status.

Vitamin D supplementation is mentioned as a potentially interesting treatment for SARS-Cov-2 infection but on a scientific basis with a low level of evidence until now.

We hypothesize that high-dose vitamin D supplementation improves the prognosis of older patients diagnosed with COVID-19 compared to a standard dose of vitamin D.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Coronavirus
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: cholecalciferol 200,000 IU; Drug: cholecalciferol 50,000 IU

Detailed Description

• Inclusion visit A clinical examination is carried out. Social-demographic measures, health history, clinical examination measures (including OSCI score) and biological measures are collected.

Randomization is conducted on the day of the inclusion visit. The ZYMAD® 400,000 IU (2 vials of 200,000 IU) or 50,000 IU (1 vial of 50,000 IU) treatment is given to the patient.

• Visit at day 7 A blood test is carried out by a nurse to determine the serum 25-OHD, creatrinine, albumine and calcium concentrations.
• Visit at day 14 A visit or telephone call allows recording the onset of clinical events of interest. The drugs received as part of the usual treatment during the last 14 days are collected.
• Visit at day 28 A visit or telephone call allows recording the onset of clinical events of interest. The drugs received as part of the usual treatment during the last 14 days are collected.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 260
• Phase: Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Angers, France
    • CHU Angers
  • Bordeaux, France
    • CHU Bordeaux
  • Le Mans, France
    • CH Le mans
  • Limoges, France
    • CHU Limoges
  • Nantes, France
    • CHU Nantes
  • Nice, France
    • CHU Nice
  • Saint Etienne, France
    • CHU Saint Etienne
  • Saumur, France
    • CH Saumur
  • Tours, France
    • CHU Tours

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 61 years and older (Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age ≥ 65 years old
• Infection with COVID-19 diagnosed with RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 or withCT-scan of the chest suggesting viral pneumonia of peripheral predominance in a clinically relevant context
• Patient seen in hospitalization or consultation or in nursing home
• Diagnosed within the preceding 3 days

• Having at least one of the following two risk factors for complications:

  • age ≥75 years
  • Peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) ≤ 94% ambient air, or a partial oxygen pressure (PaO2) to fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) ratio ≤ 300 mmHg
• Patients affiliated with or benefitting from a social security scheme
• Written and signed consent of the patient or a relative or legal representative or, if not possible, emergency inclusion procedure

Exclusion Criteria:

• Organ failure requiring admission to a resuscitation or high dependency unit
• Comorbidity that is life-threatening in the short-term (life expectancy <3 months)
• Any reason that makes follow-up at day 28 impossible
• Vitamin D supplementation in the previous month, with the exception of treatment providing less than 800 IU of vitamin D per day
• Contraindication for vitamin D supplementation: active granulomatosis (sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, lymphoma), history of calcic lithiasis, known hypervitaminosis D or hypercalcemia, known intolerance to vitamin D
• Participation in another simultaneous trial
• Safeguard of justice
• Peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) ≤92% in spite of an oxygen therapy > 5L/min

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; High dose of vitamin D3	Drug: cholecalciferol 200,000 IU; Patients receive a vitamin D supplementation of 400,000 IU in a single oral dose.
Active Comparator: Comparator group; Standard dose of vitamin D3	Drug: cholecalciferol 50,000 IU; Patients receive a vitamin D supplementation of 50,000 IU in a single oral dose

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Number of death of any cause, during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention.	Day 14

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of death of any cause, during the 28 days following the inclusion and intervention.		Day 28
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 14 based on the change of the WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement (OSCI) for COVID-19	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 14
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 28 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 28
Rate of patients with at least one severe adverse event at day 28, according to the regulations		Day 28
Number of death of any cause during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD <25nmol/L) at baseline		Day 14
Number of death of any cause during the 28 days following the inclusion and intervention, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD <25nmol/L) at baseline		Day 28
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 14 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD <25nmol/L) at baseline	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 14
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 28 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD<25nmol/L) at baseline	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 28
Number of death of any cause during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (25-OHD<75nmol/L or 25-OHD≥75nmol/L)		Day 14
Number of death of any cause during the 28 days following the inclusion and intervention, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (25-OHD<75nmol/L or 25-OHD≥75nmol/L)		Day 28
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 14 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (25-OHD<75nmol/L or 25-OHD≥75nmol/L)	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 14
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 28 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (25-OHD<75nmol/L or 25-OHD≥75nmol/L)	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 28
Number of death of any cause during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD<25nmol/L) at day 0, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (<75nmol/L or ≥75nmol/L)		Day 14
Number of death of any cause during the 28 days following the inclusion and intervention, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD<25nmol/L) at day 0, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (<75nmol/L or ≥75nmol/L)		Day 28
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 14 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD<25nmol/L) at day 0, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (<75nmol/L or ≥75nmol/L)	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 14
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 28 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, in patients with severe hypovitaminosis D (25-OHD<25nmol/L) at day 0, depending on serum vitamin D concentration achieved at day 7 (<75nmol/L or ≥75nmol/L)	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 28
Number of death of any cause during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention, depending on evolution of serum vitamin D concentration between day 0 and day 7		Day 14
Number of death of any cause during the 28 days following the inclusion and intervention, depending on evolution of serum vitamin D concentration between day 0 and day 7		Day 28
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 14 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, depending on evolution of serum vitamin D concentration between day 0 and day 7	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 14
Clinical evolution between day 0 and day 28 based on the change of the OSCI for COVID-19, depending on evolution of serum vitamin D concentration between day 0 and day 7	OSCI ranges from 0 to 8, higher score meaning poorer outcome	Day 28
Number of death of any cause during the 14 days following the inclusion and intervention, compared to mortality data in French hospital geriatric units from the current national survey by the French Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology		Day 14

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Angers
• Collaborators: Mylan Laboratories

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Shakoor H, Feehan J, Al Dhaheri AS, Cheikh Ismail L, Ali HI, Alhebshi SH, Apostolopoulos V, Stojanovska L. Role of vitamin D supplementation in aging patients with COVID-19. Maturitas. 2021 Oct;152:63-65. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2021.03.006. Epub 2021 Mar 16. No abstract available.
• Annweiler C, Beaudenon M, Gautier J, Gonsard J, Boucher S, Chapelet G, Darsonval A, Fougere B, Guerin O, Houvet M, Menager P, Roubaud-Baudron C, Tchalla A, Souberbielle JC, Riou J, Parot-Schinkel E, Celarier T; COVIT-TRIAL study group. High-dose versus standard-dose vitamin D supplementation in older adults with COVID-19 (COVIT-TRIAL): A multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled superiority trial. PLoS Med. 2022 May 31;19(5):e1003999. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003999. eCollection 2022 May.
• Annweiler C, Beaudenon M, Gautier J, Simon R, Dubee V, Gonsard J, Parot-Schinkel E; COVIT-TRIAL study group. COvid-19 and high-dose VITamin D supplementation TRIAL in high-risk older patients (COVIT-TRIAL): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2020 Dec 28;21(1):1031. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04928-5.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 14, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): January 14, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 9, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 9, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): April 14, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 30, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 29, 2021
• Last Verified: April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: older adults; vitamin D
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Coronavirus Infections; Coronaviridae Infections; Nidovirales Infections; RNA Virus Infections; Virus Diseases; Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Pneumonia, Viral; Pneumonia; Lung Diseases; COVID-19; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Micronutrients; Vitamins; Bone Density Conservation Agents; Calcium-Regulating Hormones and Agents; Vitamin D; Cholecalciferol
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-001602-34

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No