Cytokine News and Research

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Novel testing system predicts outcomes in patients with sepsis

More than 1.7 million Americans develop sepsis each year, and more than 270,000 die from it. The condition--which happens when the body has an extreme response to a bacterial or viral infection, causing a chain reaction that can lead to organ failure and death--has few strategies for treatment.

26 May 2020

Using Qigong to manage COVID-19 in older adults

A recent study published in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry in May 2020 reports on the possible usefulness of the integrative practice called Qigong to prevent and manage COVID-19 in older adults.

25 May 2020

Children with COVID-19 presenting with sudden severe lung disease

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to seek out new victims, puzzling new presentations are further confusing the situation. A new study published online in The Lancet Rheumatology in May 2020 reports a case of severe COVID-19 in a child who rapidly developed acute respiratory distress symptoms without prior respiratory symptoms. This case should alert clinicians to consider this diagnosis in children as well.

24 May 2020

New clinical trial to test treatment that targets overactive immune response to COVID-19

For some COVID-19 patients, the body's immune response may be as destructive as the virus that causes the disease.

22 May 2020

Study to examine how stem cell transplant patients react to COVID-19 infection

A new study will look at how patients, who receive stem cell transplants for blood cancers and blood disorders, react to COVID-19 infection during their recovery.

22 May 2020

IL-6 blocker use in severe COVID-19 increases risk of secondary infections

With many hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a rush to find an effective vaccine or drug against the virus. A new study on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows that the use of some biologically plausible drugs may be counterproductive, and care should be taken when trying out unproven therapies.

22 May 2020

Producing virus-specific antibodies after COVID-19

In order to design effective vaccines for COVID-19, we need to understand our immune responses. News-Medical speaks to Professor Chen Dong to find out more.

21 May 2020

Research looks at COVID-19 in cancer patients

As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, new questions arise as to the risk posed by the virus to different patient populations, including the elderly and those with underlying disease. A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 deals with the risk of COVID-19 in the subgroup of patients with cancer.

21 May 2020

Certain corticosteroid could improve severe COVID-19, say researchers

Researchers at Wayne State University and Henry Ford Health System in Michigan have conducted a study indicating that the corticosteroid methylprednisolone could improve outcomes among patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

20 May 2020

Immunologists propose possible molecular mechanism for the deadly respiratory syndrome

Research into how the SARS-CoV-2 virus induces death is suggesting potential treatments for its most destructive complications.

20 May 2020

New drug treatment can reduce risk of death from COVID-19 infection

Researchers in the Ludwig Center at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have identified a drug treatment that could--if given early enough--potentially reduce the risk of death from the most serious complication of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), also known as SARS-CoV-2 infection.

20 May 2020

The use of rheumatoid arthritis drug sarilumab in severe COVID-19 pneumonia

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 reports the beneficial effects of the monoclonal antibody sarilumab in severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

19 May 2020

Do parasites protect against SARS-CoV-2?

The world has rarely seen such a readily transmissible infection as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) over the last century. Within five months, the virus has created a Tsunami of COVID-19 positive cases, comprising almost 4.88 million people and causing 322,000 deaths.

19 May 2020

Sleep apnea may increase the risk of severe COVID-19, say researchers

An analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital in Finland has suggested that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be a risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019).

19 May 2020

Study highlights need to focus on medications that address clot formation

Earlier this week, the BBC reported that one-third of COVID-19 patients developed dangerous blood clots.

19 May 2020

Common cytokine profile in ARDS, severe COVID-19 and sepsis

Many lives have been lost to the severe pneumonic disease COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the ongoing pandemic. The reason for the critical lung injury that results in a fatal outcome in a significant minority of patients has been supposed to be the dramatic oversecretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines triggered by the virus.

19 May 2020

Tocilizumab improves survival in COVID-19 patients with ARDS

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2), has already nearly 4.8 million confirmed cases and more than 318,000 deaths.

18 May 2020

Potential new treatment approach to fatal COVID-19

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Pathways Bioscience in the United States have found that activating a transcription factor involved in oxidative stress regulation, antiviral activity, and inflammation may serve as a new treatment approach to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

18 May 2020

SMART researchers awarded NMRC funding to develop rapid paper-based COVID-19 tests

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, has received a grant from the National Medical Research Council COVID-19 Research fund for the acceleration of research and development of rapid paper-based serological and diagnostic tests for COVID-19.

18 May 2020

Kawasaki disease outbreak in children with COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has marched its way to almost all parts of the world, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and over 4.5 million cases as of May 15, 2020. One saving grace has been the apparent sparing of children, though the mortality in older people is quite high.

17 May 2020