BREAKING! Cytokine Storms: Researchers Discover 6 Inflammatory Molecules That Could Be Potential Therapeutic Targets For COVID-19 Cytokine Storms
Source: Cytokine Storms Jun 26, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 24 minutes ago
Cytokine Storms: Medical researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University are the first in the world to profile the body's immune response to COVID-19.
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Simply by detailed studying of blood samples from critically ill patients at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), the research team identified a unique pattern of six molecules that could be used as therapeutic targets to treat the cytokine storms caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The research findings are published in the journal: Critical Care Explorations.
https://journals.lww.com/ccejournal/FullText/2020/06000/Inflammation_Profiling_of_Critically_Ill.27.aspx
Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports that the immune system can overreact to the virus and cause a cytokine storm ie elevated levels of inflammatory molecules that damage healthy cells.
Dr Douglas Fraser, lead researcher from Lawson and Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Critical Care Physician at LHSC said, “Clinicians have been trying to address this hyperinflammation but without evidence of what to target. Our study takes away the guessing by identifying potential therapeutic targets for the first time."
The research included 30 participants: 10 COVID-19 patients and 10 patients with other infections admitted to LHSC's intensive care unit (ICU), as well as 10 healthy control participants. Blood was drawn daily for the first seven days of ICU admission, processed in a lab and then analyzed using statistical methods and artificial intelligence (AI).
The study team studied 57 inflammatory molecules.
They found that six molecules were uniquely elevated in COVID-19 ICU patients (tumor necrosis factor, granzyme B, heat shock protein 70, interleukin-18, interferon-gamma-inducible protein 10 and elastase 2).
The researchers also used AI to validate their results. They found that inflammation profiling was able to predict the presence of COVID-19 in critically ill patients with 98 percent accuracy.
They also found that one of the molecules (heat shock protein 70) was strongly associated with an increased risk of death when measured in the blood early during the illness.
Dr Fraser added, "Understanding the immune response is paramount to finding the best treatments. Our next step is to test drugs that block the harmful effects of several of these molecules while still allowing the immune system to fight the virus."
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