A better understanding of the immune response leading to severe symptoms

A better understanding of the immune response leading to severe symptoms

22 January 2021

A study conducted by Grant, R.A., Morales-Nebreda, L., Markov, N.S. et al. provides some new insight on the mechanisms leading to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in some COVID19 patients. They collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples on a cohort of 88 patients with SARS-CoV-2-induced respiratory failure and 211 patients with known or suspected pneumonia from other pathogens. They found that SARS-Cov-2 virus may cause alveolitis with alveolar macrophages sheltering the virus and T cells inducing a positive feedback loop that drives persistent alveolar inflammation.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03148-w