Abstract: Journal Pre-proof Vitamin D modulates systemic inflammation in patients with severe COVID-19 Fatemeh Saheb Sharif-Askari, Shirin Hafezi, Narjes Saheb SharifAskari, Hawra Ali Hussain Alsayed, Bushra Mdkhana, Balachandar Selvakumar, Mohammad-Hani Temsah, Basema Saddik, Fatme Al Anouti, Rabih Halwani PII: S0024-3205(22)00609-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2022.120909 Reference: LFS 120909 To appear in: Life Sciences Received date: 28 June 2022 Revised date: 12 August 2022 Accepted date: 22 August 2022 Please cite this article as: F.S. Sharif-Askari, S. Hafezi, N.S. Sharif-Askari, et al., Vitamin D modulates systemic inflammation in patients with severe COVID-19, Life Sciences (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2022.120909 This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. © 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. Journal Pre-proof Vitamin D modulates systemic inflammation in patients with severe COVID-19 Fatemeh Saheb Sharif-Askari1*, Shirin Hafezi1*, Narjes Saheb Sharif-Askari1, Hawra Ali Hussain Alsayed2, Bushra Mdkhana1, Balachandar Selvakumar1, Mohammad-Hani Temsah3, Basema Saddik1,4, Fatme Al Anouti5, Rabih Halwani1,6,7 1 Sharjah Institute of Medical Research, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 2 Pharmacy Department, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 3 of Immunology Research Lab, Department of pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia 4 ro Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 5 Department of Health Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates -p 6 re Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 7 lP Prince Abdullah Ben Khaled Celiac Disease Chair, department of pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia ur na * Contributed equally. Jo Corresponding author: Rabih Halwani; Address: College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Email: rhalwani@sharjah.ac.ae. 1 Journal Pre-proof Abstract Aims The ability of Vitamin D (VitD) to modulate immune responses in the clinical setting of COVID-19 infection is not well investigated. This study aimed to evaluate the ability of VitD to attenuate inflammatory responses in patients with severe COVID-19. Materials and Methods of Blood samples and nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained from patients with severe COVID- ro 19 who had been treated (20 patients), or not (25 patients), with VitD, during their stay in the intensive care unit. Western blotting was used to evaluate the expressions of STAT3, -p JNK and AKT signaling pathways and ELISA was used to measure levels of IL-6, IL-17, and re IL-1β in blood of these patients. lP Key findings Reduced levels of STAT3, JNK and AKT pathways and lower levels of proinflammatory na cytokines such as IL-6, IL-17, and IL-1β were..