Destructive White Blood Cells Linked to COVID-19

A link between destructive white blood cells and a more severe disease course in COVID-19 patients has been identified.

Higher levels of neutrophil extracellular traps in blood are associated with more severe COVID-19, found new research.

"We found that patients with COVID-19 infection have higher blood levels of neutrophil extracellular traps, also called NETs, which are a product of an inflammatory type of neutrophil cell death called NETosis," says first author Yu (Ray) Zuo, M.D., a Michigan Medicine rheumatologist.

Coronavirus
Coronaviruses infect animals, humans, and birds. Human coronaviruses, such as SARS, MERS, and 2019-nCoV cause respiratory distress and even death. The S protein is the infectious agent of the virus.

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Neutrophil extracellular traps may be relevant to many aspects of COVID-19 research, given that thrombosis and inflammation are hallmarks of severe infection.

Zuo worked on the study with Yogen Kanthi, M.D., a cardiologist and vascular medicine specialist at the Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center, and Jason Knight, M.D., Ph.D., a rheumatologist at Michigan Medicine, who study inflammation and neutrophils. The researchers analyzed blood samples from 50 patients with COVID-19 for this publication.

Zuo and colleagues say, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to better understand what causes the inflammatory storm and blood clots triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection--a storm that leads to respiratory failure and a requirement for mechanical ventilation in many patients.

This is the first publication to come out of the Frankel CVC's CV Impact Research Ignitor Grant program, which was created to address COVID-19 from both basic science and clinical perspectives.

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