A new treatment that might keep COVID-19 patients off the ventilator
Article by: Emily Caldwell
Originally Published
According to a study published online recently in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, a new treatment is among the first known to reduce the severity of acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the flu in animals, according to a new study.
Tests in mice infected with high doses of influenza showed that the treatment could improve lung function in very sick mice and prevent progression of disease in mice that were pre-emptively treated after being exposed to the flu.
The hope is that it may also help humans infected with the flu, and potentially other causes of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) such as SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Ian Davis, professor of veterinary biosciences at The Ohio State University is senior author of the study. Co-authors include Lucia Rosas, Lauren Doolittle, Lisa Joseph, Hasan El-Musa and Judy Hickman-Davis of Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine; Michael Novotny from the Cleveland Clinic; and Duncan Hite from the University of Cincinnati.
This work was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.