media advisory

Thursday, October 6, 2022

A detailed analysis of 8 patients has been published.

what

Findings from a small study of eight patients published in clinical infection This suggests that the COVID-19 rebound is likely not due to an impaired immune response. Led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, the study will examine the clinical course and immunological and virological course of COVID-19 rebound in patients taking nirmatrelvir. It was intended to define the clinical characteristics of ritonavir (Paxlovid), an antiviral treatment developed by Pfizer. COVID-19 rebound is characterized by recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms and/or new positive viral tests after a negative test. prevention. According to the study authors, the results suggest that his five-day course of Paxlovid was too short for his body to develop a strong immune response to his SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. does not support the hypothesis.

Participants were selected from adults enrolled in COVID-19 Research Underway at NIH Clinical Centers in Bethesda, Maryland, and other local hospitals. This study aims to better understand how SARS-CoV-2 affects white blood cells. Participants can donate blood and other samples and access medical records for COVID-19 as part of the study. A study evaluating COVID-19 rebound included 6 participants (3 males and 3 females, age median age 42 years) were included. Two participants (a 54-year-old male and a 35-year-old female) who experienced recurrent symptoms who did not take paxlovid. and a control group of 6 people who were infected with COVID-19 but did not experience a rebound of symptoms. All participants had been previously vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and none developed severe illness requiring hospitalization during acute infection or rebound. Researchers collected data on the clinical course of each participant and performed laboratory tests on blood and nasal swab samples.

The researchers found no evidence of genetic alterations to suggest that participants who experienced a rebound of COVID-19 were infected with a SARS-CoV-2 strain resistant to paxlovid. They also found no evidence of delayed antibody development in participants who experienced a rebound after taking paxlovid. Did. Overall, the level of T-cell responses was higher in rebound patients than in early acute COVID-19 patients who did not experience rebound. Infectious SARS-CoV-2 was detected by viral culture in 1 of 8 rebound participants.

The authors suggest that rebound symptoms may be caused in part by a strong cell-mediated immune response against residual viral RNA throughout the respiratory tract, rather than an impaired immune response that allows viral replication. I’m here. Larger and more detailed epidemiological studies are needed to further understand the clinical significance and epidemiological impact of COVID-19 rebound, the authors write. The authors conclude that current data support the need for isolation of symptomatic rebound patients and the need for clinical trials to evaluate longer courses of paxlobid in immunocompromised patients whose immune responses may be ineffective. It says it does.

paper

BP Epling, JM Rocco and others. Clinical rebound of COVID-19 after nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is not associated with delayed immune response or severe disease. clinical infection DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciac663 (2022).

Who

Irini Sereti, MD, Chief of the HIV Pathogenesis Section of the Institute for Immunomodulation, part of NIAID’s Intramural Research Division, is available for comment.

contact

To schedule an interview, call the NIAID Office of Communications at (301) 402-1663, [email protected].

NIAID conducts research at NIH, throughout the United States and around the world, to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing, and treating these diseases. and support. News releases, fact sheets, and other NIAID-related materials are available at NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the United States medical research agency, has 27 laboratories and centers and is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. . For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…turning discovery into health®

###

This page was last reviewed: October 6, 2022