Type O blood is linked to lower COVID risk, vitamin D intake is unlikely to help

(Reuters) – The following is a rundown of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Some blood types are less likely to get COVID-19

A large study adds evidence that people with type O or Rh negative blood may have a slightly lower risk from the new coronavirus. Among 225,556 Canadians who were tested for the virus, the risk for a diagnosis of COVID-19 was 12% lower, and the risk of severe COVID-19 or death was 13% lower in people with blood type O than in those with A, AB or B, the researchers reported Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. People of any blood type who were Rh-negative were also protected in some way, especially if they had O-negative blood. People in these blood types may have developed antibodies that can recognize aspects of the new virus, co-author Dr. Joel Ray of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto told Reuters. “Our next study will specifically look at those antibodies and whether they explain the protective effect,” Ray said. It is still unclear whether or how this information could influence the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. (bit.ly/2JhQvws)

Vitamin D does not help in severe cases of COVID-19

Low vitamin D levels have been linked to a higher risk of severe COVID-19, but high levels of vitamin D don’t solve the problem. Rising vitamin D levels in critically ill patients did not reduce their hospital stay or their chances of being transferred to ICU, needing mechanical ventilation, or dying, Brazilian doctors found. They randomly gave 240 hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 a single high dose of vitamin D3 or a placebo. Only 6.7% of patients in the vitamin D group had “deficient” levels of the nutrient, compared with 51.5% of patients in the placebo group, but there were no differences in results, according to a paper published in medRxiv prior to the review. among peers. The same was true when the researchers focused on the 116 patients with vitamin D deficiency before treatment. The authors say theirs is the first randomized study of its kind to show that vitamin D supplementation “is ineffective in improving length of hospital stay or any other clinical outcome among hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19.” (bit.ly/3mfqOeH)

Triggers of COVID-19 “cytokine storm” identified

A form of inflammatory cell death called panoptosis triggers the cytokine storm, or inflammatory proteins, that causes critical illness in COVID-19, the researchers say. During panoptosis, “cells throw up their contents instead of packing them neatly” as they do during normal cell death, Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital told Reuters. Neighboring cells see the debris, including cytokines, as a sign of danger and respond by secreting more cytokines, allowing the cytokine storm to develop, Kanneganti said. His team identified a synergy between two cytokines, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma, as the cause of panoptosis in COVID-19. Mice treated with TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma developed the symptoms and organ damage of COVID-19 and died quickly, Kanneganti said. Treatment with antibodies that neutralize these two cytokines protected the mice from death, not only from COVID-19 but also from other life-threatening diseases involving cytokine storms, such as sepsis, his team in Cell reported. Evidence is needed. to test these treatments in humans, Kanneganti said. (bit.ly/375VBEa)

Survivors of COVID-19 benefit from home health care

Survivors of COVID-19 benefit from home health care after being discharged from hospital, new data shows. Researchers from the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University studied 1,409 patients who received home health care, nearly half of whom were under the age of 65. When they were discharged, 80% were still short of breath, most reported anxiety or confusion, and over 80% needed help walking, dressing and bathing. After an average of 32 days of home health care, 94% no longer needed the service. The vast majority did not fully recover, but most symptoms improved significantly, as did patients’ ability to perform daily activities. Only 10 percent needed to be hospitalized, the researchers reported Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Only 11 percent of COVID-19 survivors nationwide have been discharged from hospitals with skilled health services,” said co-author Margaret McDonald of the New York Visiting Nursing Service. This study “suggests that HHC is significantly underutilized in the recovery of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.” (bit.ly/39kY7Jz)

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