A recent study found that children with certain immunodeficiency diseases had anomalies in the genes that control the body’s defences against viral infections and are more likely to die as a result of COVID-19. The results of the study were presented in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus-infected kids typically only experience minor symptoms or none at all. Serious difficulties might arise in a tiny number of cases, though.
“Children with primary immunodeficiency illnesses who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 have considerably higher mortality rates. Our findings suggest that children with severe COVID-19 or multi-inflammatory syndrome should undergo basic immunology testing and genetic testing (MIS-C). On the basis of these children’s genetic modifications, the physicians will therefore be able to provide them with more specific medicines “According to the study’s principal investigator, Qiang Pan-Hammarstrom, a professor at the Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Biosciences and Nutrition.
It is debatable how the virus affects people with primary immunodeficiency conditions, such as inherited and congenital immune system disorders. Even within this group of individuals, some have significant COVID-19 symptoms while others have minimal or no symptoms.
Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have studied young patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases (also known as inborn errors of immunity, IEI) who developed severe or critical SARS-CoV-2 infection in order to look into this issue more thoroughly and attempt to find genetic explanations for severe forms of COVID-19. Analyses of the genetic and immune systems were carried out.
“Our findings provide light on the molecular basis of these immunological illnesses, which presents the opportunity to create a more specialised form of treatment. We can also create better methods for the treatment and prevention of severe COVID-19 illness in these individuals because to the knowledge we’ve gained from the study “Qiang Pan-Hammarstrom adds.
31 kids from the age of five months to 19 years participated in the study. All of the children had severe or serious COVID-19 and some form of primary immunodeficiency illness without a molecular diagnosis. Iran hosted participant recruitment from August to September 2020. None of the kids had received a COVID-19 vaccination.
More over one-third, or 11 youngsters, passed away from infection-related problems. Five kids, or 16% of the population, satisfied the MIS-C criteria for multi-inflammatory syndrome. Some of the kids lacked coronavirus antibodies.
Hassan Abolhassani, assistant professor at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s lead author, says that this finding “suggests that many children with this type of immune disease cannot produce antiviral antibodies and would therefore not have the full benefit of vaccination.”
More than 90% of the participants, or 28 youngsters, had mutations in genes crucial for human immune system, which might explain their immunodeficiency, according to genetic investigations. Mutations that impact interferons, immune system-regulating proteins that are produced when a virus infects a person, were a significant mechanism.
According to assessments of the patients’ immune reactions, children with MIS-C have immunological profiles that are different from those of children with primary immunodeficiency who do not also have MIS-C.
In the study’s literature survey, which was conducted internationally, the researchers discovered accounts of around 1,210 individuals with primary immunodeficiency illness and COVID-19. Children made up around 30% of them. In contrast to the 0.01 percent death rate experienced by children in the general population, the mortality rate among children with primary immunodeficiency illness and COVID-19 was over 8%.
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The study only includes children who are unvaccinated and have severe COVID-19 infections caused by the original viral strain. Additional research is required to determine the significance of various virus strains and vaccinations in this patient population.
The research was carried out as part of the ATAC research collaboration, which was overseen by Karolinska Institutet and was sponsored by the European Commission in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s implementation required close cooperation with Uppsala University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rockefeller University, and Necker Hospital for Sick Children in France.
