Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is an acute respiratory illness characterised by bilateral chest radiographical opacities with severe hypoxaemia due to non-cardiogenic pulmonary oedema. ...The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in ARDS and highlighted challenges associated with this syndrome, including its unacceptably high mortality and the lack of effective pharmacotherapy. In this Seminar, we summarise current knowledge regarding ARDS epidemiology and risk factors, differential diagnosis, and evidence-based clinical management of both mechanical ventilation and supportive care, and discuss areas of controversy and ongoing research. Although the Seminar focuses on ARDS due to any cause, we also consider commonalities and distinctions of COVID-19-associated ARDS compared with ARDS from other causes.
Given the high expression of TRPC6 in lung epithelial and endothelial cells, its role as a stress sensor, and the lack of oedema formation in mice lacking TRPC6,7 the drug’s sponsor tested its ...ability to reduce pulmonary oedema in COVID-19 pneumonia.Table 1 Previously tested putative endothelial-targeted drugs* in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) Drug/mechanism of action Proposed effect on endothelium Notable results Interferon β-1a Upregulation of CD73 pulmonary endothelial cells leading to increased adenosine concentrations Activation of adenosine receptors improves pulmonary endothelial barrier function through junctional reorganisation and cytoskeleton rearrangement INTEREST Trial 2020:14 moderate or severe ARDS, intravenous IFN-β-1a vs placebo, no difference in 28-day ventilator-free days Beta agonists Activate beta 2 receptors present in the lung May reduce endothelial damage or enhance repair in models of lung injury Preclinical observations: treatment with B2-agonists could reduce pulmonary oedema, accelerate the rate of alveolar fluid clearance and reduce barrier injury in the lung15 BALTI-2 Trial 2012:16 ARDS (P: Imatinib Tyrosine kinase inhibitor Protects against capillary leak and alveolar oedema caused by inflammatory stimuli Preclinical: Imatinib attenuates vascular leak and inflammation in a 2-hit model of murine injury (LPS followed by ventilator-induced lung injury)12 Imatinib in COVID-19 Trial 2021:11 COVID-19 requiring supplemental oxygen, Imatinib vs placebo, no difference in time to discontinuation of ventilation and supplemental oxygen *Drugs are likely pleiotropic with other non-endothelial actions. First and foremost, this trial is exemplary of a well-functioning DMC which acts quickly to minimise potential harm or non-benefit to participants. ...this trial like many during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the ability to rapidly screen and enrol patients into interventional trials in a dynamic inpatient setting.
Heterogeneity in sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is increasingly being recognized as one of the principal barriers to finding efficacious targeted therapies. The advent of ...multiple high-throughput biological data ("omics"), coupled with the widespread access to increased computational power, has led to the emergence of phenotyping in critical care. Phenotyping aims to use a multitude of data to identify homogenous subgroups within an otherwise heterogenous population. Increasingly, phenotyping schemas are being applied to sepsis and ARDS to increase understanding of these clinical conditions and identify potential therapies. Here we present a selective review of the biological phenotyping schemas applied to sepsis and ARDS. Further, we outline some of the challenges involved in translating these conceptual findings to bedside clinical decision-making tools.
This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2023. Other selected articles can be found online at ...https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/annualupdate2023 . Further information about the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine is available from https://link.springer.com/bookseries/8901 .
The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality around the world. Diverse clinical presentations prompted numerous attempts to predict disease severity to ...improve care and patient outcomes. Equally important is understanding the mechanisms underlying such divergent disease outcomes. Multivariate modeling was used here to define the most distinctive features that separate COVID-19 from healthy controls and severe from moderate disease. Using discriminant analysis and binary logistic regression models we could distinguish between severe disease, moderate disease, and control with rates of correct classifications ranging from 71 to 100%. The distinction of severe and moderate disease was most reliant on the depletion of natural killer cells and activated class-switched memory B cells, increased frequency of neutrophils, and decreased expression of the activation marker HLA-DR on monocytes in patients with severe disease. An increased frequency of activated class-switched memory B cells and activated neutrophils was seen in moderate compared to severe disease and control. Our results suggest that natural killer cells, activated class-switched memory B cells, and activated neutrophils are important for protection against severe disease. We show that binary logistic regression was superior to discriminant analysis by attaining higher rates of correct classification based on immune profiles. We discuss the utility of these multivariate techniques in biomedical sciences, contrast their mathematical basis and limitations, and propose strategies to overcome such limitations.
Red blood cells (RBCs) are essential for aerobic respiration through delivery of oxygen to distant tissues. However, RBCs are currently considered immunologically inert, and few, if any, secondary ...functions of RBCs have been identified. Here, we showed that RBCs serve as critical immune sensors through surface expression of the nucleic acid–sensing Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). Mammalian RBCs expressed TLR9 on their surface and bound CpG-containing DNA derived from bacteria, plasmodia, and mitochondria. RBC-bound mitochondrial DNA was increased during human and murine sepsis and pneumonia. In vivo, CpG-carrying RBCs drove accelerated erythrophagocytosis and innate immune activation characterized by increased interferon signaling. Erythroid-specific deletion of TLR9 abrogated erythrophagocytosis and decreased local and systemic cytokine production during CpG-induced inflammation and polymicrobial sepsis. Thus, detection and capture of nucleic acid by TLR9-expressing RBCs regulated red cell clearance and inflammatory cytokine production, demonstrating that RBCs function as immune sentinels during pathologic states. Consistent with these findings, RBC-bound mitochondrial DNA was elevated in individuals with viral pneumonia and sepsis secondary to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated with anemia and severity of disease. These findings uncover a previously unappreciated role of RBCs as critical players in inflammation distinct from their function in gas transport.
A decrease in the activity of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) increases the amount of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors on liver cells and, therefore, LDL clearance. The ...clearance of lipids from pathogens is related to endogenous lipid clearance; thus, PCSK9 may also regulate removal of pathogen lipids such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Compared to controls, Pcsk9 knockout mice displayed decreases in inflammatory cytokine production and in other physiological responses to LPS. In human liver cells, PCSK9 inhibited LPS uptake, a necessary step in systemic clearance and detoxification. Pharmacological inhibition of PCSK9 improved survival and inflammation in murine polymicrobial peritonitis. Human PCSK9 loss-of-function genetic variants were associated with improved survival in septic shock patients and a decrease in inflammatory cytokine response both in septic shock patients and in healthy volunteers after LPS administration. The PCSK9 effect was abrogated in LDL receptor (LDLR) knockout mice and in humans who are homozygous for an LDLR variant that is resistant to PCSK9. Together, our results show that reduced PCSK9 function is associated with increased pathogen lipid clearance via the LDLR, a decreased inflammatory response, and improved septic shock outcome.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a global pandemic, but human immune responses to the virus remain poorly understood. We used high-dimensional cytometry to analyze 125 COVID-19 ...patients and compare them with recovered and healthy individuals. Integrated analysis of ~200 immune and ~50 clinical features revealed activation of T cell and B cell subsets in a proportion of patients. A subgroup of patients had T cell activation characteristic of acute viral infection and plasmablast responses reaching >30% of circulating B cells. However, another subgroup had lymphocyte activation comparable with that in uninfected individuals. Stable versus dynamic immunological signatures were identified and linked to trajectories of disease severity change. Our analyses identified three immunotypes associated with poor clinical trajectories versus improving health. These immunotypes may have implications for the design of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread within the human population. Although SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus, most humans had been previously exposed to ...other antigenically distinct common seasonal human coronaviruses (hCoVs) before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Here, we quantified levels of SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies and hCoV-reactive antibodies in serum samples collected from 431 humans before the COVID-19 pandemic. We then quantified pre-pandemic antibody levels in serum from a separate cohort of 251 individuals who became PCR-confirmed infected with SARS-CoV-2. Finally, we longitudinally measured hCoV and SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the serum of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Our studies indicate that most individuals possessed hCoV-reactive antibodies before the COVID-19 pandemic. We determined that ∼20% of these individuals possessed non-neutralizing antibodies that cross-reacted with SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins. These antibodies were not associated with protection against SARS-CoV-2 infections or hospitalizations, but they were boosted upon SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Display omitted
•Some humans possessed cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 antibodies prior to the pandemic•Pre-pandemic SARS-CoV-2 reactive antibodies are not associated with protection•Antibodies to a related betacoronavirus are boosted upon SARS-CoV-2 infection
Analysis of human serum samples before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic show that antibodies against common seasonal human coronaviruses are cross-reactive against SARS-CoV-2 but do not confer cross-protection against infection or hospitalization.