COVID-19 roundup: Impact on pregnancy, kidneys, cancer

In this week’s roundup, the latest scientific research on the coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines suggest that COVID-19 symptoms that persist long after infection – known as “long COVID” – are at higher risk for new kidney problems and that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines trigger protective immune responses in most cancer patients with solid tumors.

mRNA vaccines not associated with loss of pregnancy

Miscarriages are no more common among pregnant women who receive an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from eight US healthcare systems from 105,446 women who were between 6 and 19 weeks pregnant. Of these, 7.8% had received at least one dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 6% had received at least one dose of Moderna. A total of 13,160 women suffered miscarriages, but the risk within a month of vaccination was no different from those who were not vaccinated, according to a report published in JAMA on Wednesday. The researchers acknowledge that they may have been missing some data. For example, they did not know the history of the women’s pregnancies. Still, they conclude that their results will help doctors advise pregnant women in their decision-making about vaccines.

US vaccines protect against Delta variant

All three COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States are effective in preventing hospital stays and urgent or emergency visits caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, although Moderna’s vaccinations are most effective, according to national data collected in June-July appear to be and August as the delta became predominant. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracked nearly 33,000 emergency care or emergency room visits and hospital admissions of adults with COVID-19-like illnesses. Compared to fully vaccinated people, those who were not vaccinated were five to seven times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus, the researchers found. The effectiveness of the vaccine for urgent care or emergency visits “was highest among Moderna vaccine recipients (92%), followed by Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine recipients (77%) and was lowest (65%) with Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). Johnson) vaccine recipients. “Reported the researchers on Friday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The pattern was similar for hospital stays. “These results confirm” that all three vaccines provide “high protection” against coronavirus infections that make people sick enough to seek emergency or emergency care or to be hospitalized, the CDC said.

COVID-19 autopsies provide clues for researchers

Sophisticated molecular tools are helping pathologists uncover new avenues for COVID-19 research on autopsies of patients who have died of the disease. “By comparing the molecular signatures of infected and uninfected tissue, we were able to identify four main pathways that cause severe COVID-19,” said Elisabet Pujadas of the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York City. These pathways include blood vessels, cell signaling proteins called cytokines, and cell activation, structure, and breakdown, she and her colleagues explained in a report published Wednesday in the American Journal of Pathology. “Specific genes within these signaling pathways can explain why we see excessive inflammation and blood clotting, making them exciting targets for potential new therapies that target the core of the problem,” said Pujadas.

Research also found that while the coronavirus is known to use a cell surface protein called ACE2 as a “receptor” or gateway, patients’ brains have high levels of other gateway proteins that the virus could potentially use called BSg and ANPEP . “While that alone does not show that infection is through these receptors, it does require that we think and examine these receptors broadly and not assume that ACE2 alone gives the full picture,” said Pujadas.

“Long COVID” associated with higher kidney risks

COVID-19 symptoms that persist long after infection, known as “long COVID,” have been linked to a higher risk of kidney problems, according to a new study. When analyzing data from more than 1.7 million US veterans, including nearly 90,000 COVID-19 survivors with symptoms that lasted for at least 30 days, the researchers found that the “long-distance riders” were at greater risk for new kidney problems than people who were not infected with the coronavirus. This was true even when survivors were not hospitalized, even though the deterioration in kidney function was “deeper” with more severe infections, they reported Wednesday in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. About 5% of the long COVID group developed at least a 30 percent decrease in a critical measure of kidney function known as the estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR. Overall, the likelihood that eGFR decreased by 30% in people with long-term COVID-19 illness was 25% higher than in uninfected people, with higher risks for survivors of more severe illness. While kidney function often declines with age, the damage in these patients was “above what happens with normal aging,” said study co-author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University in St. Louis, in a statement. “Our results underscore the importance of being mindful of kidney function and disease when caring for patients with COVID-19,” he said.

Vaccines induce antibodies despite cancer, immunodeficiency

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines induce protective immune responses in most cancer patients with solid tumors and in many people taking immunosuppressive drugs, as two small studies suggest. In Israel, researchers found that six months after the second dose of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s vaccine, 79% of 154 patients with solid tumors had developed antibodies, as did 84% of 135 similar people without cancer considered statistically significant. The antibody levels are similar in both groups, the researchers reported in Cancer Discovery on Thursday. Separately, US researchers studied 133 adults taking immunosuppressive drugs for chronic inflammatory diseases and 53 healthy volunteers. Three weeks after the second vaccination with an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna Inc, nearly 90% of the immunocompromised participants had developed antibodies, although many had lower responses compared to the control group, according to a report published Tuesday in Annals of the Inside Medicine.

Antibody therapy lowers hospital stays

People with mild to moderate COVID-19 who were treated with a monoclonal antibody cocktail had lower hospitalization rates than similar people who did not receive treatment, researchers reported on EClinicalMedicine Monday. They studied nearly 1,400 such patients, about half of whom had received combination therapy with monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc. Among those who received treatment, about 45% were over 65 years of age, and many had high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, lung disease, and other risk factors. By four weeks after treatment, 1.6% of them had been hospitalized, compared with 4.8% of the patients who were not treated with the monoclonal antibodies. The study was not randomized and cannot prove that the treatment caused the better results. However, it “suggests that patients who are at high risk of developing mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 due to a number of comorbidities, this combination of monoclonal injections gives them the chance of non-hospital recovery,” the study director said Dr. Raymund Razonable of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in a statement.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/19/covid-19-roundup-impact-on-pregnancy-kidneys-cancer/