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By Nancy Lapid
Jan 11 (Reuters) - The following is a roundup of some of the
latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts
to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused
by the virus.
Half a year later, COVID-19 patients still have symptoms
Most patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have at least one
symptom six months after falling ill, according to findings from
a study in Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus first
emerged in late 2019. Doctors there tracked 1,733 patients who
were diagnosed and hospitalized between January, 2020 and May.
Six months later, 76% had at least one symptom including
fatigue or muscle weakness (seen in 63%), sleep difficulties and
anxiety or depression. Most of those who had been severely ill
had ongoing lung problems and chest abnormalities that could
indicate organ damage, while 13% of patients whose kidneys
functioned normally in the hospital went on to develop kidney
problems later, researchers reported on Friday in The Lancet.
"We are only beginning to understand" some of the long-term
effects of COVID-19, study coauthor Bin Cao from the China-Japan
Friendship Hospital in Beijing said in a statement. "Our
analysis indicates that most patients continue to live with at
least some of the effects of the virus after leaving hospital,"
highlighting the need for post-discharge care. (https://bit.ly/39hUKS2)
Interferon boosts proteins that deny entry to coronavirus
An experimental inhaled form of interferon being tested for
treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients may not have a
limitation researchers had feared. A potential problem with
interferon is that it increases levels of a protein called ACE2,
which the new coronavirus uses as a gateway into cells. In test
tube experiments, researchers looked at cells that line the path
from the nose into the lungs and discovered there are actually
two forms of ACE2 - the well known one and a short form that
lacks the entryway used by the virus. Interferon increases the
short form of ACE2 but not the longer form, they found, which
means it does not appear to boost entry points for the virus.
"We were excited to discover a new form of ACE2," Dr. Jane Lucas
of the University of Southampton, who co-led the study reported
on Monday in Nature Genetics, said in a statement. "We believe
this may have important implications for managing COVID-19
infection." An inhaled interferon from Synairgen Plc is
being tested in late-stage trials. (https://go.nature.com/3oBO9Z0)
Saliva viral load improves prediction of COVID-19 severity
The amount of the new coronavirus in saliva might help guide
doctors' care of patients because it is a better predictor of
disease course than viral load in swab samples obtained from the
nose and the back of the throat, researchers said. They studied
26 mildly ill COVID-19 patients, 154 hospitalized patients -
including 63 who became critically ill and 23 who eventually
died - and 108 uninfected individuals. Saliva viral load, but
not nasopharyngeal viral load, was linked with COVID-19 risk
factors like age and gender, and with immune system responses.
Saliva viral load was also superior to nasopharyngeal viral load
at predicting critical illness and death, the researchers
reported on Wednesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Saliva
contains inhaled germs that are cleared from the lungs by the
body's protective mechanisms, coauthor Akiko Iwasaki of Yale
University explained in a tweet on Sunday. The saliva viral load
therefore reflects how well the virus is making copies of itself
all the way through the respiratory tract, from the nose to the
lungs, and not just in the nose and back of the throat, Iwasaki
said. (https://bit.ly/3i1KpO9)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3a5EyDh in an external browser for a
Reuters graphic on vaccines and treatments in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
