TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — In contrast to common pneumonia, COVID-19 pneumonia spreads like many “wildfires” all through the lungs, researchers say.
This may occasionally clarify why COVID-19 pneumonia lasts longer and causes extra hurt than typical pneumonia, in accordance with the researchers at Northwestern Drugs in Chicago.
The analysis crew stated that their goal is to make COVID-19 extra like a foul chilly.
For the research, the crew analyzed immune cells from the lungs of COVID-19 pneumonia sufferers and in contrast them to cells from sufferers with pneumonia attributable to different viruses or micro organism.
Whereas different types of pneumonia quickly infect giant areas of the lungs, COVID-19 begins in quite a few small areas of the lungs. It then makes use of the lungs’ personal immune cells to unfold throughout the lungs over many days and even weeks. That is much like how a number of wildfires unfold via a forest, the research authors defined.
As COVID-19 pneumonia slowly strikes via the lungs, it leaves broken lung tissue in its wake and contributes to the fever, low blood pressure and organ harm frequent in COVID-19 sufferers, the crew stated.
The lengthy period of COVID-19 pneumonia, somewhat than better severity, could also be why it causes extra critical problems than different forms of pneumonia, in accordance with the research authors. The report was revealed on-line Jan. 11 within the journal Nature.
The researchers additionally recognized immune cells — macrophages and T cells — that might be essential targets when treating extreme COVID-19 pneumonia. Macrophages usually defend the lungs, however might be contaminated by the new coronavirus and assist unfold the an infection via the lungs, the crew famous in a Northwestern information launch.
In a medical trial early this yr, the investigators plan to check an experimental drug that targets these immune cells in COVID-19 pneumonia sufferers. The drug reduces the inflammatory response of those immune cells.
“Our objective is to make COVID-19 delicate as a substitute of extreme, making it corresponding to a foul chilly,” research co-author Dr. Scott Budinger stated within the information launch. He’s chief of pulmonary and significant care medication at Northwestern College Feinberg Faculty of Drugs.
Research co-author Dr. Richard Wunderink, professor of pulmonary and significant care medication at Feinberg and medical director of Northwestern Drugs’s ICU, added that “this effort actually represents a ‘moonshot’ in COVID-19 analysis.”
Extra data
The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has extra on COVID-19.
SOURCE: Northwestern Drugs, information launch, Jan. 11, 2021
