key: cord-295703-no45mgyd authors: ALTAY, O.; YANG, H.; AYDIN, M.; Alkurt, G.; ALTUNAL, N.; KIM, W.; AKYOL, D.; ARIF, M.; Zhang, C.; Dinler-Doganay, G.; TURKEZ, H.; SHOAIE, S.; NIELSEN, J.; BOREN, J.; DOGANAY, L.; UHLEN, M.; Mardinoglu, A. title: Combined metabolic cofactor supplementation accelerates recovery in mild-to-moderate COVID-19 date: 2020-10-05 journal: nan DOI: 10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 sha: doc_id: 295703 cord_uid: no45mgyd BACKGROUND The characteristics of COVID-19 outbreak and high fatality rate of COVID-19 infection have attracted the attention of scientists due to the strong interactions between components of metabolic syndrome, metabolic abnormalities, and viral pathobiology of COVID-19. Combined metabolic cofactors supplementation (CMCS) consisting of L-serine, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), nicotinamide riboside (NR), and L-carnitine tartrate is being studied for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. METHODS We conducted a placebo-controlled, phase-2 clinical trial involving ambulatory COVID-19 patients. A total of 100 patients were randomly assigned on a 3:1 basis to hydroxychloroquine plus CMCS or hydroxychloroquine plus placebo. The total treatment period for the hydroxychloroquine was 5 days, and for the CMCS/placebo was 14 days. Clinical status was evaluated daily by phone, using a binomial scale for subject reported presence or absence for multiple COVID-19 related symptoms. Plasma samples for clinical chemistry analyses were collected on day 0 and day 14. RESULTS A total of 93 patients completed the trial. The combination of CMCS and hydroxychloroquine significantly reduced the average complete recovery time compared with hydroxychloroquine and placebo (6.6 days vs 9.3 days, respectively). Moreover, there was a significant reduction in ALT, AST and LDH levels on day 14 compared to day 0 in the hydroxychloroquine plus CMCS group. The adverse effects were uncommon and self-limiting. CONCLUSIONS In patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, CMCS resulted in a significant reduction in recovery time and liver enzymes associated with hepatic function compared to placebo. We observed that CMSC is associated with a low incidence of adverse events. pandemic, over 30 million confirmed cases and about 1 million COVID-19-related deaths have been reported globally (1). To immediately challenge COVID-19 burden, scientists worldwide are applying their expertise to the effort to a greater extent than any other time in history. In this context, a large number of clinical data on COVID-19 have been published and numerous reports have demonstrated that people with metabolic abnormalities --hypertension, high blood sugar, obesity, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol --have greater risk of developing severe outcomes (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) . Moreover, a large number of clinical trials have been performed for repositioning existing drugs for effective treatment of COVID-19 patients (7, 8) . Based on the outcome of these clinical studies remdesivir and favipiravir are approved by the United States FDA and Chinese FDA, respectively for the treatment of COVID-19 patients (9, 10). Recently, we performed integrative analysis of multi-omics data on different metabolic conditions and found that combined metabolic cofactors supplementation (CMCS) consisting of L-serine, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), nicotinamide riboside (NR), and Lcarnitine tartrate may be used for treatment of the patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (11, 12) . On the basis of this evidence, we conducted an animal toxicity study and a human calibration study with/without supplementation of combined metabolic cofactors, and demonstrated the safety of the CMCS (13) . In that study, we also performed plasma metabolomics and proteomics profiling and revealed plasma level of metabolites associated with the antioxidant metabolism and proteins associated with the inflammation were significantly decreased with the CMCS. To date, NAC, NR (categorized as a form of Vitamin B3, Niacin) and L-carnitine have also been used in human trials associated with viral diseases including COVID-19, and serine has been evaluated in immune system related disorders (Table S1) . Encouraged by the results of aforementioned studies, and the urgent nature of the pandemic, we performed a randomized, controlled, open label, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability and safety of CMCS in ambulatory COVID-19 patients. We conducted a randomized, open-label, placebo-controlled, phase 2 study by recruiting COVID-19 patients between July 15, 2020, and September 18, 2020 at the Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the initiation of any trial-related procedures. Safety of the participants and evaluation of the benefitrisk balance was overseen by an independent external data monitoring committee at the Umraniye Training and Research Hospital. The trial was conducted in accordance with Good Clinical Practice guidelines and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This study has been approved by the ethics committee of Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey. The study is also registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ with the Clinical Trial ID: NCT04573153. Patients over 18 years of age were enrolled in the trial if they were diagnosed with COVID-19 by a positive real time PCR test within the last 24 hours and had a stable clinical course that could be treated on an ambulatory basis. Chest tomography (CT) was also performed and patients who had partial oxygen saturation below 93% and required hospitalization after diagnosis were excluded. The main characteristics of the patients involved in the study are presented in Table 1 . Complete lists of inclusion, exclusion, and randomization criteria are provided in the Supplementary Appendix. Patients randomly assigned on a 3:1 basis to the standard therapy plus CMCS or standard therapy plus placebo. A web-based randomization system used to assign a randomization code for each patient. Investigator at the investigational site was able to enter the web-based randomization system specific to the study through assigned username and password. After entering patient-related information (patient number, date of birth, patient initials), the system provided randomization code for the future use by investigators. This randomization code was entered into the electronic case report form (e-CRF). Except the investigator, all other clinical staff involved in the daily surveying of the study participants blinded to whether the patients were receiving placebo or active. The patients were also unaware if they were receiving active or placebo. During the 14-day run-in period, all participants received standard of care therapy of hydroxychloroquine treatment with an initial dose of 2x400 mg (oral) followed by 400 mg/day (2x200 mg oral) for a total of 5 days. The hydroxychloroquine plus CMCS group applied the same dosage and duration of the hydroxychloroquine therapy. Additionally, a total CMCS (L-Carnitine tartrate, 7.46 g/day plus N-Acetylcysteine, 5.1 g/day plus Nicotinamide riboside, 2 g/day plus Serine 24.7 g/day; as water soluble powders in disposable bottle containing the entire one dose) was given orally, twice/day; one dose in the morning, one dose after dinner, for two weeks ( Figure S1 ). The total treatment period for the hydroxychloroquine was 5 days and CMCS was 14 days, starting with the initial diagnosis of COVID-19. The patients were contacted by phone every day during the study to assess symptoms and adverse events, and all patients performed their follow-up visit on the 14th day. Further information is provided in the Supplementary Appendix. The primary end point in the original protocol was to assess the clinical efficacy of the combination of CMCS in COVID-19 patients. For the primary purpose, the proportion of patients who fully recovered from COVID-19, as demonstrated by being symptom free within the 14 days of the initial diagnosis of COVID-19 was determined This was . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . amended to include self-reporting of daily symptoms and clinical status using a binomial scale (present/absent) via daily telephone visits by clinical staff. The secondary aim in this study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of CMCS and hydroxychloroquine combination. All protocol amendments were authorized and approved by the sponsor, the institutional review board or independent ethics committee, and the pertinent regulatory authorities. Number and characteristics of adverse events, serious adverse events, and treatment discontinuation due to study supplements were reported from the beginning of the study to the end of the follow-up period as key safety endpoints. The changes in vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressures, pulse, respiratory rate, body temperature, pulse oximetry values), baseline values, and the status of treatment were recorded at day 0 and 14. A complete list of the end points is provided in the Supplementary Appendix. The primary outcome was the time to recovery (ending of all symptoms), among patients treated with standard therapy plus CMCS as compared with standard therapy plus placebo at day 14. Recovery curves were generated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs were calculated by Cox proportional-hazards regression model. Factors significant at univariable analysis (p < 0.05) were further assessed by means of a multivariable analysis using Cox proportional-hazards regression model to evaluate the independent value of CMCS treatment after adjusting for demographic factors including age, gender, underlying health conditions, smoking, and alcohol consumption. The differences in clinical measurements were analyzed with the use of Student t-test or a Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous variables and the results are presented with two-sided p values, with the significance level of 0.05. When the p value was <0.05, the difference was considered statistically significant. Statistical analysis was performed using R package version (4.0.2). We recruited 100 adults with a confirmed COVID-19 positive PCR test, and 93 of the patients completed the study (Table 1 , Supplementary Dataset 1). Of the 7 patients that did not complete the study, 5 dropped out the study due to their will and 2 of the patients required hospitalization before using the study supplement. A total of 71 patients were randomly assigned to hydroxychloroquine plus CMCS group and 22 to hydroxychloroquine plus placebo group (Fig. S1 ). The mean age of the patients was 35.6 years (19-66 years) and men accounted for 60% of the participants (Table 1) . Patients had low prevalence of coexisting conditions (such as hypertension (2%), or type 2 diabetes mellitus (5%)), and the mean body mass index was 24.8 (16.8 -37.8) . Most common symptoms were malaise (51%), headache (48%), cough (41%), myalgia (38%), anosmia (26%), sore throat (22%), shortness of breath (6%), nausea/vomiting (5%), and diarrhea (2%). The baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . well balanced between the treated and placebo groups (Table 1) . All patients who fully recovered in the study were PCR negative on day 14. Primary Outcome: We observed the average recovery of patients in the CMCS treated group was 6.6 days whereas in the placebo group was 9.3 days (P = .0001) (Figure 1 ). In the univariate analysis, we integrated multiple factors, including CMCS, age, gender, underlying health conditions, smoking, and alcohol consumption, to identify which variables significantly influenced the treatment duration. The results showed that CMCS was a significant factor of patients' recovery [p < 0.000362, HR = 2.59, 95% CI: 1.54-4.38] (Table S2 ). To determine the independent effect of these variables on the time of recovery, multivariate analyses were performed using Cox's proportional hazards model. Results confirmed that CMCS independently reduced the time of recovery [p < 0.0003, hazard ratio (HR) = 2.68, 95% CI: 1.57-4.59] (Table S2) . The difference in serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels on day 14 between the CMCS treated group and placebo groups was statistically significant (P = .002 and P=.02 respectively; Figure 2 , Table S3 ). Both ALT and AST levels were significantly decreased at day 14 compared to day 0 in the CMCS treated group whereas only the level of AST was slightly but significantly decreased at day 14 compared to day 0 in the placebo group. Similarly, LDH level was significantly (P=.008) decreased at day 14 compared to day 0 in the CMCS treated group, whereas no significant changes were observed at day 14 compared to day 0 in the placebo group. The triglyceride levels increased in both groups at day 14 compared to day 0, but patients in the CMCS treated group had a lower triglyceride increase compared to patients in the placebo group; however, the difference between groups at day 14 was not significant. There were no significant differences on levels of neutrophil, lymphocyte, white blood cell, and platelets between CMCS treated and placebo groups at day 0 and day 14; however, all of these values significantly improved at day 14 compared to day 0 for both groups (Figure 3 , Table S3 ). Haemoglobin and ferritin levels were significantly different between CMCS and placebo groups both at day 0 and day 14; but there was no significance in the course of disease. (Figure 4 , Table S3 ). There were no significant differences in C reactive protein, D-dimer, and creatinine levels when comparing the Day 14 results for the placebo vs the active supplement groups (Figure 4 , Table S3 ). Only mild adverse events occurred in 2 patients in the CMCS treated group (2.8%); both patients reported a mild rash on the upper body and decided to complete the study . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 doi: medRxiv preprint In this randomized, open-label, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial involving ambulatory COVID-19 patients, we found that the combination of CMCS and hydroxychloroquine significantly reduced the average recovery time compared with hydroxychloroquine and placebo (6.6 days vs 9.3 days, respectively). Recovery was defined as the study patients self-reporting 0 symptoms. Moreover, there was a significant reduction in ALT, AST and LDH levels on day 14 compared to day 0. The adverse effects were uncommon, benign, and self-limiting. The antiviral properties of repurposed drugs have gained considerable attention due to the lack of targeted treatments for emerging viruses. Numerous study results have been indicated the role of L-serine, NAC, NR, and L-carnitine tartrate in lung diseases and viral infectious diseases (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) . These ingredients of CMCS have been known for pharmacological properties, side-effects, and dosing procedures, which takes advantage of the rapid development of clinical trials and COVID-19 treatment protocols. (14, 24) While clinical signs of COVID-19 essentially manifest as respiratory tract infection, it has also been accompanied by systemic presentations. Among those, commonly reported gastrointestinal and hepatic manifestations include nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, and abnormal liver enzyme levels (e.g. elevations in ALT and AST) (25) . Furthermore, some studies have reported that liver deficiencies are correlated with worse outcomes including longer hospitalization, progression to severe COVID-19, intensive care unit admission, and mortality (26) (27) (28) (29) . A growing body of evidence shows the level of glutathione is not enough to maintain and regulate the thiol redox status of the liver in subjects with liver dysfunction due to the depletion of glycine (11) . Glycine can be synthesized via the interconversion of serine. It has been shown that the serine synthesis is downregulated in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and supplementation of serine enhanced homocysteine metabolism in mice and rats (30) . In a recent study, serine has also been shown to be an essential metabolite for modulation of adaptive immunity by supporting effector T cell responses (31) . Depleted liver glutathione is also restored by the administration of N-acetylcysteine. Similarly, Lcarnitine and nicotinamide riboside both stimulate the transfer of fatty acids from cytosol to mitochondria have been identified as two additional cofactors that are depleted in liver diseases (32) (33) (34) (35) . Taken together, we envisage CMCS may improve clinical outcomes in COVID-19 by regulating energy metabolism and various metabolic pathways for carbohydrates, lipids, and amino acids. Considerable numbers of COVID-19 patients are at risk of detrimental outcomes attributed to the systemic inflammatory responses described as the "cytokine storm". This life-threatening condition is dependent on the downstream process leading to oxidative stress, dysregulation of iron homeostasis, hypercoagulability, and thrombocytopenia (36, 37). In this context several studies have proposed that CMCS components may be effective to inhibit the production of proinflammatory molecules (e.g., IL6, CCL5, CXCL8, and CXCL10) and improve impaired mitochondrial functions by reducing enhanced oxidative damage, lipid peroxidation and disturbed glucose . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . tolerance (38, 39). Given the evidence of breaking the overactive immune response with CMCS components, early treatment with CMCS may be beneficial to reduce the progression risk that leads to severe respiratory distress, and lung damage. Our trial has several limitations. First, to date, randomized clinical trials evaluating hydroxychloroquine have reported no evidence of clinical benefit for the treatment of COVID-19. However, in Turkey, the treatment of COVID-19 with short courses of hydroxychloroquine (5 days, if needed up to 10 days) has been recommended by the Ministry of Health for all patients that have positive PCR test results. Therefore, in our study we cannot exclude the possible interaction of hydroxychloroquine treatment with CMCS. Second, the trial was not blinded and patients were within a single hospital setting. Third, we included patients up to 14 days after hospital administration, thus day 0 was the beginning of the symptoms for each patient between 24-48 hours. In this trial we evaluated the efficacy and safety of CMCS when combined with the hydroxychloroquine therapy in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, and found that combination therapy is safe and beneficial in patients with mild COVID-19 disease. . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 doi: medRxiv preprint Data are n (%) or median (min-max). In the treated group 71 patients were treated with CMCS plus standard therapy. . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 doi: medRxiv preprint . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . ns: p >.05, * .01 < p .05, ** .001 < p 0.01, *** p .001 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 doi: medRxiv preprint . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.02.20202614 doi: medRxiv preprint . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review) The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted October 5, 2020. Table S1 : NAC, NR (Vitamin B3, Niacin) and L-carnitine have also been used in previous human trials associated with viral diseases including COVID-19. Table S3 : Summary of laboratory analysis before and after the treatment in treated and placebo groups. Dataset S1: The characteristics of each patient involved in the study. . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. 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The other authors declare no competing interests.