Protein âsignatureâ linked to severe COVID-19 outcomes identified, Mass General Hospital study says
By Travis Andersen Globe Staff,Updated May 5, 2021, 11:13 a.m.
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The entrance to Massachusetts General Hospital on Fruit Street in Boston. Researchers there have identified whatâs known as a protein âsignatureâ linked to severe health outcomes including death for people who contract COVID-19, according to an article published Tuesday in the Harvard Gazette.Lane Turner/Globe Staff
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have identified whatâs known as a protein âsignatureâ linked to severe health outcomes including death for people who contract COVID-19, according to an article published Tuesday in the Harvard Gazette.
COVID-19 Disease Severity May Be Driven by Antibody Responses
February 22, 2021
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COVID-19’s wide range of symptoms has been a particularly challenging piece of the disease’s puzzle to figure out. For children, the situation is even more complicated as they almost exclusively experience mild or asymptomatic COVID-19. But children who contract COVID-19 are at risk for a rare but serious syndrome called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Severe cases of MIS-C can lead to cardiac disease and ventricular failure and require hospitalization and intense medical support.
In a recent study, researchers identified immune mechanisms that result in these disparate clinical phenotypes in children could provide critical insights into COVID-19 pathogenesis. More specifically, they found specific types of antibodies that may be driving these different responses, including one specific to severe disease in adults and another specific to MIS-C in children.
Levels of IgG antibodies may influence COVID-19 outcomes
COVID-19, the source of the current pandemic, may be caused by a single virus, but it has a variety of presentations that make treatment difficult. Children, for example, almost exclusively experience mild or asymptomatic COVID-19, while adults can develop severe or even fatal COVID-19.
But children who contract COVID-19 are at risk for a rare but serious syndrome called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Severe cases of MIS-C can lead to cardiac disease and ventricular failure, and require hospitalization and intense medical support.
Researchers Galit Alter, Ph.D., a core member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and Lael Yonker, MD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Center, are working to understand why COVID-19 can lead to such distinctly different outcomes in different populations.
Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital show that levels of specific antibodies developed in the immune response may influence COVID-19 outcomes in both children and adults.