Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

There is significant interest throughout the United States in performing a well-designed study to evaluate whether there is value in using Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine as a pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis regimen for COVID-19 patients and at risk personnel. We have designed a prospective double blinded randomized controlled clinical trial to answer just this question. The study will consist of 4 arms: 1. A placebo control arm of 450 patients 2. A low dose prophylaxis arm of 450 patients treated with 200mg Hydroxychloroquine daily 3. A high dose prophylaxis arm of 450 patients treated with 400mg Hydroxychloroquine daily 4. A post-exposure arm of 100 patients treated with 400mg Hydroxychloroquine daily for 7 days.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of ascorbic acid (vitamin c) and zinc gluconate in reducing duration of symptoms in patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients above the age of 18 who present to the Cleveland Clinic outpatient testing and receive a positive test for COVID-19 will be invited to participate.

Mortality from Covid-19 increases with age, reaching 14.8% from the age of 80. The severity of the infection is linked to the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) which requires intensive care. ARDS is the consequence of the reactional inflammatory storm that damages the lungs. Aged subjects are particularly prone to zinc and vitamin D deficiency. These two micronutrients are able to modulate the immune response by reducing the inflammatory storm. The hypothesis is that supplementation with zinc and vitamin D would reduce the inflammatory reaction which worsens ARDS and leads to the death of subjects infected with Covid-19.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) is a devastating viral illness that originated in Wuhan China in late 2019 and there are nearly 2 million confirmed cases. The mortality rate is approximately 5% of reported cases and over half of patients that require mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure. As the disease continues to spread, strategies for reducing duration of ventilator support in patients with COVID-19 could significantly reduce morbidity and mortality of these individuals and future patients requiring this severely limited life-saving resource. Methods to improve gas exchange and to reduce the inflammatory response in COVID-19 are desperately needed to save lives. The ketogenic diet is a high fat, low carbohydrate, adequate-protein diet that promotes metabolic ketosis (ketone body production) through hepatic metabolism of fatty acids. High fat, low carbohydrate diets have been shown to reduce duration of ventilator support and partial pressure carbon dioxide in patients with acute respiratory failure. In addition, metabolic ketosis reduces systemic inflammation. This mechanism could be leveraged to halt the cytokine storm characteristic of COVID-19 infection. The hypothesis of this study is that the administration of a ketogenic diet will improve gas exchange, reduce inflammation, and duration of mechanical ventilation. The plan is to enroll 15 intubated patients with COVID 19 infection and administer a 4:1 ketogenic formula during their intubation.

Although the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVD-19) is classified as an acute respiratory infection, emerging data show that morbidity and mortality are driven by disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Untreated CAC leads to microangiopathic thromboses, causing multiple systems organ failure and consuming enormous healthcare resources. Identifying strategies to prevent CAC are therefore crucial to reducing COVID-19 hospitalization rates. The pathogenesis of CAC is unknown, but there are major overlaps between severe COVID-19 and vitamin D insufficiency (VDI). We hypothesize that VDI is a major underlying contributor to CAC. Preliminary data from severe COVID-19 patients in New Orleans support this hypothesis. The purpose of the proposed multi-center, prospective, randomized controlled trial is to test the hypothesis that low-risk, early treatment with aspirin and vitamin D in COVID-19 can mitigate the prothrombotic state and reduce hospitalization rates.

In this study (i) the host genome to identify susceptibility regions of infection, inflammation, and host defense, (ii) host response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Corona-Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and (iii) viral sequence composition to define viral sequences which may be correlated with disease severity in addition to the metagenome of the throat swab will be analysed .

Hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine (an antimalarial drug) with a weak immunosuppressive effect, is prescribed by some teams alone or in combination with azithromycin. No randomized controlled trials have demonstrated its efficacy, particularly in primary care in the early stages of the disease. However, currently available data suggest better efficacy if treatment is given early in the disease, before symptoms worsen. To date, the majority of COVID-19 patients treated in outpatient care, particularly in general practice, represent the majority of COVID-19 patients. It is essential to evaluate, in primary care, the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin in Covid-19 patients in order to be able to implement this therapeutic strategy as soon as the first symptoms appear. We realize a randomized, controlled, open superiority trial, in 2 parallel groups (ratio 1:1).The main objective is to assess the efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin in COVID-19 patients in primary care, in add-on to standard of care, on unfavorable outcome defined by the onset of at least one of the following between D0 and D14: hospitalization, death or percutaneous O² saturation ≤ 92% in ambient air.

To study the efficacy of Gum Arabic as an immuno modulator and anti-inflammatory agent among COVID 19 seropositive patients..Half of participants will receive Gum Arabic and the other half will receive placebo

A novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is a global dramatic pandemic that is immeasurably impacting the communities. Due to lack of data, symptomatic management is used for COVID-19 infection including oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation for those with severe infection. Considering immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory anti-fibrotic and anti-oxidant actions of vitamin D, it's safety and ease of administration, as well as direct effects of vitamin D on immune cell proliferation and activity, pulmonary ACE2 expression and reducing surface tension, evaluation of vitamin D supplementation as an adjuvant therapeutic intervention could be of substantial clinical and economic significance. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in elderly, smokers, patients with chronic diseases and excess uptake by adipose tissue in obesity make investigations of its role as a secondary therapeutic agent in COVID-19 conceivable. It should be necessary to monitor serum 25(OH)D levels in all inpatient and outpatient populations with COVID-19 to identify the importance of maintaining or promptly increasing circulating levels of 25(OH)D into the optimal range of 100-150 nmol/L. The aim of this study is to conduct a double blind, randomized, controlled three weeks clinical trial on the efficacy of vitamin D (daily low dose versus weekly high dose) in COVID-19 patients in order to determine the relationship between baseline vitamin D deficiency and clinical characteristics and to asses patients' response to vitamin D supplementation in week three and determine its association with disease progression and recovery. Subjects who are randomized to high-dose will be asked to take 50,000 IU for two times during the first week and one dose over second and third weeks to quickly raise their serum levels. Subjects in the low-dose arm will take vitamin D 1000 IU daily for three weeks.

Covid-19 In Tunisia: AN Observational Cross-Sectional Registry Study