COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to hypertension, autoimmune, infectious and cardiovascular diseases which are risk factors for COVID-19. Moreover, COVID-19 patients have a very high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D (Turin data). Taken together, we aim to investigate whether genetic variants in vitamin D-related genes contribute to a poor COVID-19 outcome, particularly in hypertension and CV patients, proposing thus a personalized therapeutics based on vitamin D supplementation in order to reduce the severity and deaths.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first merged in China in December 2019, is now becoming a Public Health Emergency, recently confirmed as a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization. In particular, since February 2020, a rapidly growing number of cases has been identified in Italy. The clinical picture of ranges from asymptomatic cases, mild upper respiratory tract infections to severe pneumonia with respiratory failure and death. In most severe cases, COVID-19 disease may be complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock and multiorgan failure. It results fundamental to early identify those subjects who rapidly may worsen their clinical status, often requiring an intensive care unit (ICU) admission. It has been showed that, mainly in more severe forms of SARS-Cov-2 disease, there is the development of an hyperinflammatory status resembling a cytokine storm syndrome, as already reported in SARS patients. A recent study by Haung et al. reported that patients with COVID-19 infection showed high amounts of IL1B, IFN-gamma, IP10 and MCP1, probably linked to activated T-helper1 (Th1) cell responses. Those requiring ICU admission had higher levels of cytokines than those subjects not requiring ICU admission, thus suggesting that cytokine storm was associated with disease severity. A similarity between cytokine profile of COVID-19 disease and secondary haemophagocytic syndrome (sHLH) has been reported. Therefore, it was suggested to screen all patients with severe COVID-19 infection both for hyperinflammatory markers (like ferritin), and the HScore commonly used to generate a probability for diagnosis of sHLH (8), which includes some laboratory parameters like triglycerides, fibrinogen, ferritin, serum aspartate aminostransferase. Based on our experience on patients affected by pneumonia from Covid19, we have observed that those subjects with a more severe prognosis might have some predictive markers. We intend to verify if these markers can identify those subjects with Covid19 infection who need a more intensive therapy and to find a prognosis score.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the end of 2019 has seen numerous patients experiencing severe acute lung injury (ALI), which developed into severe respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The mortality was as high as 20% -40%. Due to the lack of effective antiviral treatments, supporting treatment is the predominant therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia. Its cure is essentially dependent on the patient's immunity. While the immune system eliminates the virus, numerous inflammatory cytokines are produced and a cytokine storm occurs in severe cases. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play an important role in injury repair and immune regulation, showing advantageous prospects in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia. MSCs prevent cytokine storms by retarding the TNF-α pathway, alleviate sepsis by modulating macrophages, neutrophils, NK cells, DC cells, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. After infused, MSCs aggregate in the lungs, improve the lung microenvironment, protect alveolar epithelia, and improve pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary function.

Efficacy of Sunlight Activated Synthetic Porphyrin in COVID-19 Infected Patients (SnPPIX) Mahmoud ELkazzaz(1),Rokia yousry abdelaziz sallam(2) _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Abstract : The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is an infectious acute respiratory caused by the novel coronavirus. The virus is a positive-strand RNA virus with high homology to bat coronavirus. Depending on published study in which , conserved domain analysis, homology modeling, and molecular docking were used to compare the biological roles of specific proteins of the novel coronavirus. The principal investigator demonstrated according to previous researches that some viral structural and nonstructural proteins could bind to the porphyrin, respectively. At the same time, orf1ab, ORF10 and ORF3a proteins coordinated to attack heme on the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin, COVID-19 binds to the porphyrin of haem and displaces iron and a study denonestrated that Covid-19 could cause acquired acute porphyria which is the condition in which there is excess accumulation of porphyrin intermediate metabolites. This point can be taken advantage of X-ray induced visible luminescence of porphyrin for producing of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).Many porphyrins are benign in the dark but are transformed by sunlight into caustic, flesh-eating toxins Porphyrins have been used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) against a wide range of targets like bacteria, viruses and tumor cells It has been reported that ROS-based inactivation of viruses may occur due to several reasons, such as protein oxidation, single strand breaks in the RNA genome and protein-RNA crosslinking. Since ROS-based inactivation has a multi-targeted mechanism, it is much less likely that a virus would be able to develop resistance against it. Recently, porphyrins, already in use as photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), were a study target to applications in medical area, namely as possible contrast agents in MRI. could be observed some examples of porphyrin derivatives already study as MRI contrast media. Low dark toxicity, neoplastic tissue affinity and synthetic accessibility are some of the important properties that contribute for its selection. In MRI studies was found that CM based on paramagnetic metalloporphyrins showed higher affinity for neoplastic tissues, observed by increased relaxation time of the neoplastic tissues, which is reflected on an increase in MRI signal and consequently in a better neoplastic lesions detection. A study demonestrated that The sulfonated tetranaphthyl porphyrin contrast agents in MRI (TNapPS), sulfonated tetra-anthracenyl porphyrin (TAnthPS), and sulfonated 2,6-difluoro-meso-tetraphenylporphine [TPP(2,6-F2)S] and its copper chelate [TPP(2,6-F2)S,Cu], which reduced HIV infection by 99, 96, 94, and 96%, respectively. Previous studies which showed that Covid -19 binds to the porphyrin of haem and displaces iron in addition to Sulfonated porphyrins and light-stimulated Sn- protoporphyrin IX have broad antiviral activity against more distinct types of viruses, Co-protoporphyrin IX and Sn-protoporphyrin IX inactivate Zika, Chikungunya and other arboviruses by targeting the viral envelope Porphyrins are amphipathic molecules able to interact with membranes and absorb light, being widely used in photodynamic therapy. Previously, we showed that heme, Co-protoporphyrin IX (CoPPIX) and Sn-protoporphyrin IX (SnPPIX) directly inactivate DENV and YFV infectious particles. Here we demonstrate that the antiviral activity of these porphyrins can be broadened to CHIKV, ZIKV, Mayaro virus, Sindb is virus and Vesicular Stomatitis virus. Porphyrin treatment causes viral envelope protein loss, affecting viral morphology, adsorption and entry into target cells , Finally, the principal investigator expect that viral load will be declined with sunlight because In particular, porphyrins absorb essentially all the UV/visible light wavelengths in the emission spectrum of the sun; hence they are active at very low doses . Keywords: COVID 2019 ,Infection, Sulfonated porphyrins and X-ray induced visible luminescence of porphyrin

This study is designed to compare the efficacy of detection of COVID-19 infection using the serology test in blood sample and the PCR-based test in the nasopharyngeal (NP) and sputum sample. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the temporal trend of appearance of IgM and IgG in blood.

The primary objective of the study is to evaluate cardiac and pulmonary hemodynamic changes over time as predictor of disease progression and outcome in COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU. The primary endpoint is the occurrence of a major event predefined as either: death (all-cause mortality) or discharge from ICU (limit of 4 months). This is a uni-center prospective observational cohort study with an inclusion period of 2 months. The end of the study is foreseen in 6 months.

Few studies have reported the efficacy of HCQ in reducing the viral load and improving the severity of symptoms in hospitalized COVID-19 cases with serious respiratory infection. However, the prophylactic benefits of HCQ has not been clearly defined yet.

This observational pilot prospective study will evaluate a new method for remote monitoring of corrected QT measurement using an artificial intelligence (AI)-based solution and ECG data collected via smartwatches (AI-QTc), in patients ambulatory treated with the HC-AZ combination, at the early stage of COVID-19 infection, at a tertiary hospital center. Daily ECGs will be performed via the smartwatches. AI-QTc will be compared to standard manual QTc reviewed by cardiologist. Correlation and agreement between measures will be assessed.

Most patients in intensive care units (ICUs) experience severe sleep disruption. Sleep disruption and sleep alteration may have an influence on the ability to breathe spontaneously. But, the cause of altered sleep remains unknown. Previous studies have shown that decreasing nocturnal respiratory muscle activity through mechanical ventilation might improve sleep quality. Nocturnal respiratory muscle activity may be one of the potential factor which contribute to alter sleep in the ICU. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the presence of NIM activation during the night and it's consequence in an ICU population with the same pathology (COVID 19 ARDS).

This study (EMPACTA) will a) evaluate the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab (TCZ) compared with a placebo in combination with standard of care (SOC) in hospitalized participants with COVID-19 pneumonia, and b) include an optional long-term extension for eligible participants to explore the long-term sequelae of resolved COVID-19 pneumonia.