Exploring the Influence of Vitamin C Concentrations on the Dynamics of RT-PCR Assay Reactions

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that caused the COVID-19 pandemic to break out touched off a global health catastrophe characterized by various degrees of disease severity among those who were afflicted. Many strategies, such as vitamin C administration, have been investigated to reduce COVID-19 symptoms. Although the exact processes by which vitamin C affects COVID-19 remain unclear, noticeable changes in PCR test results were noted in our laboratory settings. This study uses PCR analysis to investigate the effects of varying vitamin C dosages and durations on COVID-19 test results. PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values were used to categorize nasopharyngeal tissues from 98 patients (Ct < 30, Ct ≥ 30, negative). Vitamin C was applied at different concentrations (0, 1, 10, 50, and 100 mg/ml), and PCR analyses were carried out at 1, 10, 24, and 48 h marks after the vitamin was applied. Particularly in samples with lower Ct values, the data showed significant changes in the reaction graphs and metrics with increasing vitamin C concentration. Higher concentrations of vitamin C were correlated with diminished metrics, occasionally leading to negative results for samples with Ct ≥ 30 values. Notably, samples that showed no discernible viral loads had different pictorial representations. These results raise questions regarding the reliability of PCR results in the presence of vitamin C intake and have implications for COVID-19 diagnosis. In light of the current pandemic, more studies are necessary to confirm and expand these findings and provide a critical understanding of clinical procedures and the interpretation of test results. © The Author(s) 2025.