Activities of Serum Ferritin and Treatment Outcomes Among COVID-19 Patients Treated With Vitamin C and Dexamethasone: An Uncontrolled Single-Center Observational Study

Quantitative plasma proteomics of survivor and non-survivor COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital unravels potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets

“…In the laboratory exams ( Table 2 ), the hemoglobin levels did not change among the groups, which is consistent with more recent findings showing no evidence of hemoglobin damage by SARS-CoV-2 infection (22). In the present study, severe and critical patients had increased plasma ferritin levels compared to mild ones, as has been reported in other studies (23, 24). Ferritin is a mediator of immune dysregulation.…”

High Dose Steroid Therapy to Prevent Severe Hypoxia in COVID-19 Patients: A Potential Solution for Low Resource Clinical Setting

“…Several pharmacological and nonpharmacological agents were shown to be effective in reducing morbidity and mortality. These include steroids such as dexamethasone [ 3 - 4 ], low dose methylprednisolone [ 8 ], antiviral agents such as remdesivir [ 9 ], immunomodulatory antibodies such as tocilizumab [ 10 ], and convalescent plasma [ 11 ]. Recently, Pfizer and Moderna pharmaceutical companies announced that their mRNA vaccines are effective in about 95% of people in preventing COVID-19 infection.…”

“…Even though most of the patients were expected to recover, there is high morbidity and mortality in certain populations, including the elderly and men [ 2 ]. Dexamethasone is shown to reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients [ 3 - 4 ]. High dose steroids were given in several clinical conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus, acute renal allograft rejection, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile dermatomyositis, pemphigus, optic neuritis, multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, giant cell arteritis, and multiple sclerosis.…”

A review on function and side effects of systemic corticosteroids used in high-grade COVID-19 to prevent cytokine storms

“…In a special case, a pregnant woman with COVID-19 was successfully treated with dexamethasone, remdesivir, convalescent plasma, and mechanical ventilation at 26 weeks of gestation (Jacobson et al, 2021[ 55 ]). Measurement of blood ferritin activity in patients can play an important role in determining the time window of dexamethasone administration, because the level of ferritin in patients who die is much higher than those who recover, and in fact can be a good criterion for assessing cytokine storm (Burugu et al, 2020[ 15 ]). The use of the leukosomal form of dexamethasone, which is a type of nanovesicle, exhibited good results in vitro and in this formulation dexamethasone had better therapeutic activity (Molinaro et al, 2020[ 82 ]).…”