Scientists are continuing to piece together data about the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, relating to the disease transmission patterns and the effects on the human body. For example, recent clinical evidence looking at lung pathology finds that SARS-CoV-2 infects predominantly alveolar epithelial cells and proceeds to induce a localized hyper-inflammatory cell state associated with lung damage. This type of insight is important for developing treatment regimes.
Inflammatory response
Building on the inflammatory response, new research has traced down the biomarkers of inflammation. These biological markers provide an assessment of the severity of COVID-19 and enable it to be distinguished it from severe influenza (which is caused by different coronaviruses).
The reason why some patients with COVID-19 experience severe disease, while others recover more readily is connected to the immune response. Here, a ‘cytokine storm’, involving uncontrolled levels of cytokines (the proteins released by immune cells), leads to excessive inflammation.
With the new research, clusters of inflammatory disease markers (such as GM-CSF and IL-6) have been shown to increase in scale in conjunction with rises with COVID-19 severity. The significance of the research extends to the biomarkers becoming targets for therapies seeking to reduce disease severity in severe COVID-19 cases. This may help medics to select the appropriate anti-inflammatory drugs, like corticosteroids to interrupt cytokine function and help to reduce the occurrence of mortality in COVID-19 patients.
The research appears in the journal Science Immunology, titled “Inflammatory profiles across the spectrum of disease reveal a distinct role for GM-CSF in severe COVID-19.”
Gum disease and COVID-19 severity
One factor that differentiates patients in terms of COVID-19 case severity is gum disease. A new study finds that patients with advanced gum disease are more likely to suffer with complications from a coronavirus infection. This extends to individuals who are likely to require a ventilator and who at a greater risk of dying from the disease.
This is based on an examination of some 500 patients. Scientists discovered the people with severe gum disease were nine times more likely to die from COVID-19. In addition, people in this group are five times more likely to need assisted ventilation.
The findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, with the research study titled “Gum disease linked to COVID-19 complications.”
Long-COVID and the road ahead
Long-COVID (or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome) refers to those who get over the initial viral infection but who continue to suffer with ill-health for a long time afterwards. Many of these effects are the product of over stimulation of the immune system.
Data suggests that the majority of survivors who have left hospital following COVID-19 do not fully recover, even up to five months after discharge. A post-hospitalization COVID-19 study finds that patients continue to experience negative impacts in relation to both their physical and mental health.
The residual effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection include conditions like: Fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain, cognitive disturbances, arthralgia and decline in quality of life.
The data is drawn from a UK-wide study looking at 1077 patients who entered hospital between March and November 2020. This data set showed that 74 percent of patients had at least one persistent symptom, and the average person reported eight on-going ill-heath effects.
In terms of demographics, people aged 35 to 49 were most likely to report symptoms, followed by those aged 50 to 69. By gender, women are more likely to report the effects of long-COVID compared with men.
Will coronavirus always be with us?
Public health services need to plan and prepare for the possibility of coronavirus always being an ever-present threat, endemic to most societies. This is driven through new variants of the virus and the complexities around achieving herd immunity due to anticipated low vaccination rates in some countries (notably France and U.S.). Furthermore, significant resurgences of the virus are expected to occur after the easing of control measures, and hence it may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine roll-out to control the epidemic.
With the new variants, the vaccines may possibly not provide full immunity against all variants and they do not prevent infection. As an example, vaccines are less effective against the so-called UK variant B.1.351.
For these reasons, health systems ae preparing for the very real possibility that COVID-19 will persist and become a recurrent seasonal disease.
Essential Science
This article is part of Digital Journal’s long-running ‘Essential Science’ series where topical science stories are discussed in further detail, providing reader’s with the opportunity to understand key developments.
Last week, the focus was with the latest research into linguistics, especially in terms of how we learn languages during our formative years. New research that considers major changes to the brain was presented.
The week before, considered some interesting findings in relation to numbers and maths. Having a basic familiarity with numbers is essential for understanding the world and for interpreting the news, and especially when seeking to challenge one viewpoint with an alternative one.
