Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
A recent study has found that pregnant people with COVID-19 can develop changes to their immune system that makes them susceptible to inflammation and pregnancy complications.
The study, led by researchers from Ohio and California, was published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine last month. The authors looked at 93 COVID-19 positive mothers and 45 of their infants.
The researchers analyzed more than 1,400 cytokines, which are proteins involved in immune activities, as well as other proteins collected from blood specimens. Blood specimens were taken from the mothers close to their initial diagnosis of COVID-19 as well as through their different stages of pregnancy and delivery. Blood specimens were also taken from the placentas.
“We know that pregnancy increases maternal risk for COVID-19, but relatively little is known about the long-term consequences of in utero exposure for infants,” study author Jae Jung said in a news release.
The researchers found that COVID-19 causes a dysregulated immune response, which leads to an immune system that can overreact or underreact when it's not supposed to.
“Our findings show that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy leads to distinct immune alterations in mothers and babies, highlighting how important it will be for long-term follow-up after pregnancy to catch and hopefully prevent any unforeseen long-term health conditions related to prenatal infection,” said Jung.
Stemming from this immune dysregulation, the pregnant women with severe COVID-19 were found to exhibit increased inflammation compared to participants who had mild symptoms of the disease. The women with severe COVID-19 also had higher levels of a protein called interferon lambda 1 (IFNL1), which may explain the low rate of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the baby during pregnancy, also known as vertical transmission, the study states.
“This increase in interferon lambda signalling may help explain why we see relatively little direct transmission of COVID-19 between mother and baby during the period right before or after birth—what we call vertical transmission,” co-author Suan-Sin (Jolin) Foo said in the news release. "More research will be necessary to determine if increased expression of IFNL1 … does in fact block vertical transmission.”
The researchers also found that the pregnant women in the cohort exhibited dysregulated levels of proteins associated with pregnancy complications.
Most of the babies born to the COVID-19 positive mothers in the cohort were born healthy, but there were high rates of some pregnancy complications, such as including preeclampsia. Babies born to mothers with severe COVID-19 were more likely to have low birth weight, respiratory distress and were born preterm.
"Despite the lack of robust evidence for vertical transmission, SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy appears to trigger prenatal immune activation that may lead to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes," the authors wrote, while stressing the importance of long-term clinical monitoring of infants born through COVID-19 pregnancies.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.