Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
A small preliminary study by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital suggests that people who develop severe COVID-19 have noticeably blunted antiviral responses in the nose and throat, where the body first encounters the virus.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Cell, suggests that the body’s initial response in the nasopharynx – referred to by researchers as a key “battleground” located in the nose and throat – will help determine who develops severe disease and who will get through with mild illness.
"Why some people get more sick than others has been one of the most puzzling aspects of this virus from the beginning," Jose Ordovas-Montanes, co-senior investigator on the study, said in a press release.
"Many studies looking for risk predictors have looked for signatures in the blood, but blood may not really be the right place to look."
Researchers obtained nasal swabs from 35 adults with COVID-19 between April to September 2020, ranging from mildly symptomatic to critically ill.
They also obtained swabs from 17 control subjects and six patients who were intubated due to other illnesses. None of these subjects tested positive for COVID-19.
To get a detailed picture of what happens in the nasopharynx, researchers sequenced the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) in each cell from each sample, collecting an average of 562 cells per patient.
The RNA data allowed researchers to pinpoint which cells were present in the body, which contained RNA originating from the virus as an indication of infection, and which genes the cells were turning on and off in response.
Although the study’s sample size is limited, the data shows that the epithelial cells lining the nose and throat undergo major changes in the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
In people with mild or moderate COVID-19, epithelial cells showed increased activation of genes involved with antiviral responses, particularly those stimulated by type one interferon, which acts as an alarm to the body’s broader immune system.
But, in patients who developed severe COVID-19, antiviral responses were noticeably blunted. Most importantly, their epithelial cells had a “muted response” to interferon.
At the same time, their swabs had increased numbers of other immune cells that boost inflammatory responses.
In other words, their body’s early warning system wasn’t as sharp.
"Everyone with severe COVID-19 had a blunted interferon response early on in their epithelial cells, and were never able to ramp up a defence," said Ordovas-Montanes.
"Having the right amount of interferon at the right time could be at the crux of dealing with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses."
Next, the researchers plan to investigate what is causing the muted interferon response in the nose and throat.
Although the results are preliminary, researchers say there may be a possibility of strengthening the interferon response in people with early COVID-19 infections, perhaps with a nasal spray or drops.
"It's likely that, regardless of the reason, people with a muted interferon response will be susceptible to future infections beyond COVID-19," Ordovas-Montanes said. "The question is, 'How do you make these cells more responsive?'"
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
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.