Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.]
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Novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is emerged in Wuhan, and recently become worldwide pandemic. Strangely, ample evidences have been shown that the severity of COVID-19 infections varies widely from children (asymptomatic), adults (mild infection), as well as elderly adults (deadly critical). It has proven that COVID-19 infection in some elderly critical adults leads to a cytokine storm, which is characterized by severe systemic elevation of several pro-inflammatory cytokines. Then, a cytokine storm can induce edematous, ARDS, pneumonia, as well as multiple organ failure in aged patients. It is far from clear till now why cytokine storm induces in only COVID-19 elderly patients, and not in young patients. However, it seems that aging is associated with mild elevated levels of local and systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines, which is characterized by "inflamm-aging". It is highly likely that "inflamm-aging" is correlated to increased risk of a cytokine storm in some critical elderly patients with COVID-19 infection. ⋯ The aim of the present review was to summarize experimental data and clinical observations that linked the pathophysiology mechanisms of "inflamm-aging", mild-grade inflammation, and cytokine storm in some elderly adults with severe COVID-19 infection.
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During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the global ratio between the dead and the survivors is approximately 1 to 10, which has put humanity on high alert and provided strong motivation for the intensive search for vaccines and drugs. It is already clear that if we follow the most likely scenario, which is similar to that used to create seasonal influenza vaccines, then we will need to develop improved vaccine formulas every year to control the spread of the new, highly mutable coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In this article, using well-known RNA viruses (HIV, influenza viruses, HCV) as examples, we consider the main successes and failures in creating primarily highly effective vaccines. ⋯ Interestingly, the virus strains sequenced in China (Wuhan) in February 2020 contained on average one CpG dinucleotide more in their genome than the later strains from the USA (New York) sequenced in May 2020. Obviously, during the first steps of the microevolution of SARS-CoV-2 in the human population, natural selection tends to select viral genomes containing fewer CpG motifs that do not trigger a strong innate immune response, so the infected person has moderate symptoms and spreads SARS-CoV-2 more readily. However, in our opinion, unmethylated CpG dinucleotides are also capable of preparing the host immune system for the coronavirus infection and should be present in SARS-CoV-2 vaccines as strong adjuvants.