Written by: Akshara Ramasamy Edited by: Esther Melamed Among the several health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a few medical challenges remain, including understanding the etiology of long COVID. Long COVID, also known as Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), refers to a wide range of new or worsening health problems that patients may encounter after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 for more than four weeks.1,2 As researchers strive to understand who is more susceptible for long COVID-19, data shows that women are more likely than males to develop it.2,3 Gender differences have been …
Neutralizing Autoantibodies Predict COVID-19 Disease Course and Severity
OCTOBER 8, 2020 BY PARKER DAVIS Though the disease course of COVID-19 follows a relatively predetermined and predictable progression, any number of comorbidities that a patient possesses may serve to derail or modify the patient’s clinical trajectory. From hypertension, to diabetes, to various cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases, these underlying pathologies are some of the prime factors that denote a propensity for more severe COVID-19 (Wang et al., 2020; Guan et al., 2020). Even 9 months into the pandemic, light is being shed on a new condition that is placing individuals in the ICU at …
What role does estrogen play in the COVID-19 sex difference?
Previous entries in this blog have shown that men who contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus are more likely to develop severe disease symptoms than women. The closely related coronavirus SARS-CoV-1, which also targets the ACE2 protein for cell adhesion and infiltration, showed a similar sexual disparity during the 2002-2004 SARS epidemic. Research into the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-1 pathology over the past eighteen years has provided information which can help guide investigations of the current pandemic. Notably, a 2017 study used a modified version of the virus in mice and found a lower death rate …