Seasonal UV exposure and vitamin D: Association with the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission in Europe
Mukherjee et al.,
Seasonal UV exposure and vitamin D: Association with the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission in Europe,
FEBS Open Bio, doi:10.1002/2211-5463.13309
Analysis of UV exposure in 26 European countries, showing that cloud-free vitamin D UV dose levels were negatively correlated with COVID-19 prevalence.
Mukherjee et al., 5 Oct 2021, peer-reviewed, 6 authors.
Abstract: Accepted Article
DR. ALESSANDRO GOROHOVSKI (Orcid ID : 0000-0002-4126-9781)
DR. MILANA FRENKEL-MORGENSTERN (Orcid ID : 0000-0002-0329-4599)
Received Date : 26-May-2021
Revised Date : 12-Sep-2021
Accepted Date : 04-Oct-2021
Article type
: Research Article
Seasonal UV exposure and vitamin D: Association with
the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission in Europe
Sunanda Biswas Mukherjee 1, Alessandro Gorohovski 1, Eugene Merzon 2,3, Eliad Levy
1 Cancer
1,
Sumit Mukherjee 1, and Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern 1,*
Genomics and BioComputing of Complex Diseases Lab, Azrieli Faculty of Medicine,
Bar‐Ilan University, Safed, Israel
2 Leumit
Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel
3 Department
of Family Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel
This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been
through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to
differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:
10.1002/2211-5463.13309
FEBS Open Bio (2020) © 2020 The Authors. Published by FEBS Press and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Accepted Article
*Correspondence: milana.morgenstern@biu.ac.il
Running heading: Association of UV exposure with COVID-19 in Europe
Keywords COVID-19; seasonality; ultraviolet (UV) index; cloud-free vitamin D-UV doses
(UVDVF); plasma 25(OH) vitamin D
Abbreviations
DLNM distributed lag non-linear model
RR relative risk
UV index ultraviolet index
UVDVF cloud-free vitamin D-UV doses
Abstract
Several recent studies have demonstrated that low plasma 25(OH) vitamin D levels are associated
with the risk of COVID-19 infection. The primary source of vitamin D production in humans is
environmental UV radiation. In many viral respiratory diseases, peak infection rates are observed
during winter due to reduced UV exposure and low temperatures. In Europe, the second wave of
COVID-19 began early in the winter of 2020. Investigating the impact of seasonal temperature and
UV exposure on COVID-19 transmission could thus aid in prevention and intervention. As such, we
first performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of all related published literature based on the
association of vitamin D and COVID-19, which supported the hypothesis that the low vitamin D level
is a critical risk factor for COVID-19 infection. Next, to understand the potential impact of seasonal
UV and temperature levels on COVID-19 cases, we analyzed meteorological data and daily COVID19 cases per million in the populations of 26 European countries. We observed that low temperature,
FEBS Open Bio (2020) © 2020 The Authors. Published by FEBS Press and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Accepted Article
UV index, and cloud-free vitamin D UV dose (UVDVF) levels are negatively correlated with
COVID-19 prevalence in Europe. Furthermore, a distributed lag non-linear model was used to assess
the non-linear delayed effects of individual seasonal factors on COVID-19 cases. Such analysis
highlighted the significantly delayed impact of UVDVF on the cumulative relative risk of COVID-19
infection. The findings of this study suggest that low UV exposure can affect the required production
of vitamin D in the body, which substantially influences the dynamics of COVID-19..
mukherjee
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