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Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that serves as antioxidant and plays a major role as co-factor and modulator of various pathways of the immune system. Its therapeutic effect during infections has been a matter of debate, with conflicting results in studies of respiratory infections and in critically ill patients. This comprehensive review aimed to summarize the current evidence regarding the use of vitamin C in the prevention or treatment of patients with SARS-CoV2 infection, based on available publications between January 2020 and February 2021. Overall, 21 publications were included in this review, consisting of case-reports and case-series, observational studies, and some clinical trials. In many of the publications, data were incomplete, and in most clinical trials the results are still pending. No studies regarding prevention of COVID-19 with vitamin C supplementation were found. Although some clinical observations reported improved medical condition of patients with COVID-19 treated with vitamin C, available data from controlled studies are scarce and inconclusive. Based on the theoretical background presented in this article, and some preliminary encouraging studies, the role of vitamin C in the treatment of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection should be further investigated.

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Background: The European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism database for chronic intestinal failure (CIF) was analyzed to investigate factors associated with nutritional status and the intravenous supplementation (IVS) dependency in children. Methods: Data collected: demographics, CIF mechanism, home parenteral nutrition program, z-scores of weight-for-age (WFA), length or height-for-age (LFA/HFA), and body mass index-for-age (BMI-FA). IVS dependency was calculated as the ratio of daily total IVS energy over estimated resting energy expenditure (%IVSE/REE). Results: Five hundred and fifty-eight patients were included, 57.2% of whom were male. CIF mechanisms at age 1–4 and 14–18 years, respectively: SBS 63.3%, 37.9%; dysmotility or mucosal disease: 36.7%, 62.1%. One-third had WFA and/or LFA/HFA z-scores < −2. One-third had %IVSE/REE > 125%. Multivariate analysis showed that mechanism of CIF was associated with WFA and/or LFA/HFA z-scores (negatively with mucosal disease) and %IVSE/REE (higher for dysmotility and lower in SBS with colon in continuity), while z-scores were negatively associated with %IVSE/REE. Conclusions: The main mechanism of CIF at young age was short bowel syndrome (SBS), whereas most patients facing adulthood had intestinal dysmotility or mucosal disease. One-third were underweight or stunted and had high IVS dependency. Considering that IVS dependency was associated with both CIF mechanisms and nutritional status, IVS dependency is suggested as a potential marker for CIF severity in children.

Background The PAILOT trial was a randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate proactive vs reactive therapeutic drug monitoring in children with Crohn’s disease (CD) treated with adalimumab. Our aim in this post hoc analysis of the PAILOT trial was to assess the efficacy and safety of adalimumab combination treatment in comparison with monotherapy at week 72 after adalimumab induction. Methods Participants were children 6–17 years old, biologic naïve, with moderate to severe CD, who responded to adalimumab induction at week 4. Patients receiving immunomodulators at baseline maintained a stable dose until week 24; patients could then discontinue immunomodulators. At each visit, patients were assessed for disease index, serum biomarkers, fecal calprotectin, adalimumab trough concentration, and anti-adalimumab antibodies. Results Out of the 78 patients (29% female; mean age, 14.3 ± 2.6 years), 34 patients (44%) received combination therapy. During the study period, there was no significant difference in the rates of sustained corticosteroid-free clinical remission (25/34, 73%, vs 28/44, 63%; P = 0.35) or sustained composite outcome of clinical remission, C-reactive protein ≤0.5 mg/dL, and calprotectin ≤150 µg/g (10/34, 29%, vs 14/44, 32%; P = 0.77) between the combination group and the monotherapy group, respectively. Clinical and biological outcomes did not differ between the proactive and reactive subgroups within the combination and monotherapy groups. Adalimumab trough concentrations and immunogenicity were not significantly different between groups. The rate of serious adverse events was not significantly different between groups but was numerically higher in the monotherapy group. Conclusions Combination therapy of adalimumab and an immunomodulator was not more effective than adalimumab monotherapy in children with CD (ClinicalTrials.gov No. NCT02256462).

The role of both qualitative and quantitative early nutrient intakes on later health has been suggested for decades and supported by observational studies on humans, mainly preterm and low-birth-weight infants, and animal models. However, to date, no comprehensive review has been conducted to evaluate the full impact of nutritional variables on healthy full-term infants. This umbrella review considers meta-analyses and systematic reviews on the health effects of different nutritional exposures or interventions in the first 2 y of life of healthy full-term infants in developed countries. The systematic reviews and meta-analyses published by March 2018 in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were included. The following outcomes were considered: growth and obesity, cardiovascular disease, neurodevelopment, allergy and autoimmunity, infections, and malignancy. Breastfeeding and complementary feeding were considered separately and analyzed by means of their differences in delivering heterogeneous food-related variables. The resulting data on the long-term effect of early nutritional differences in healthy full-term infants were found to be inconclusive. Only breastfeeding has a beneficial effect, which is nevertheless slight and limited to just a few outcome measures, whereas the type and duration required to be effective are still unclear. As regards the complementary feeding period, no clear effects of different dietary interventions emerge in terms of health outcomes. Available evidence on the health effects of differences in early nutrition in healthy full-term infants still remains largely inconclusive.

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