By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies of COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to confirm the findings and has yet to be certified by peer review.
Vaccination after infection can reduce long-term COVID-19
Vaccination after SARS-CoV-2 infection may help reduce the burden of long-term COVID symptoms, a new study suggests.
Researchers followed 6,729 volunteers, ages 18 to 69, who received two injections of AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine or an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna after recovering from coronavirus infection and receiving at least one injection between February. and September 2021. The likelihood of reporting prolonged COVID — symptoms lasting at least 12 weeks — dropped an average of 13% after a first vaccine dose, the researchers reported in The BMJ on Wednesday. The second dose, given 12 weeks after the first, was associated with a further 9% decrease in the likelihood of long-term COVID lasting at least 9 weeks on average, the researchers said. The likelihood of reporting long-term COVID severe enough to result in functional impairment was similarly reduced, researchers reported. The results were similar regardless of vaccine type, interval from infection to first vaccine dose, underlying health status or severity of COVID-19. However, the study was not designed to detect such differences, nor can it definitively prove that vaccines reduce the likelihood of long-term COVID-19.
“Further research is needed to evaluate the long-term relationship between vaccination and long-term COVID, especially the impact of the Omicron variant,” the researchers said.
Desktop “air curtains” can deflect virus particles
When people can’t maintain a safe distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a newly designed desktop “air curtain” could block aerosols in exhaled air, researchers found.
Air curtains – artificially created streams of moving air – are often used to protect patients in operating rooms. At Nagoya University in Japan, researchers tested their new desktop device by simulating a blood collection booth in which a lab technician stands close to the patient. Aerosol particles blown toward the curtain “were observed to bend abruptly toward (a) suction port” without passing through the air curtain, they reported in AIP Advances on Tuesday. Even putting an arm through the air curtain didn’t cut the flow or diminish its effectiveness, they said. A highly efficient particulate air filter (HEPA) can be installed in the intake port, she added.
If further testing in real-world conditions confirms the system’s effectiveness, it could “be useful not only as an indirect barrier in the medical field, but also in situations where insufficient physical distance can be maintained, such as at the reception desk,” the researchers said.
Antacids help with COVID-19 by limiting inflammation
Researchers have discovered how the antacid famotidine, commonly sold by a Johnson & Johnson unit as Pepcid, could help relieve symptoms of COVID-19 in clinical trials.
In studies in mice, they found that famotidine stimulates the vagus nerve, which controls the immune system and other involuntary bodily functions. When the vagus nerve is stimulated, it can send out signals to suppress severe immune responses — so-called cytokine storms — in which high levels of inflammatory proteins are released into the blood too quickly. When famotidine was administered to the mice, it significantly reduced levels of inflammatory proteins in the blood and spleen and improved survival. But when the vagus nerve was severed, famotidine no longer stopped cytokine storms, according to a report published Monday in Molecular Medicine. The data “indicate a role of the vagus nerve inflammatory reflex in suppressing the cytokine storm during COVID-19,” said study co-author Dr. Kevin Tracey of The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, in a statement.
Direct electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve is known to improve a variety of diseases. “Famotidine, a well-tolerated oral drug, could provide an additional method” to activate the vagus nerve to reduce inflammatory protein formation and resulting tissue damage in COVID-19 and other diseases, the researchers concluded.
Click for an image from Reuters on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; editing by Bill Berkrot)
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