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Much of our understanding of viral respiratory diseases like COVID-19 and influenza is based on investigations of symptomatic patients. A new longitudinal study of symptomatic, asymptomatic and mild disease conducted by researchers at Columbia University provides insight into how our body responds to these infections at the molecular level. They describe the discovery of a gene expression profile that can differentiate between symptomatic and asymptomatic diseases, as well as positive asymptomatic individuals from negative individuals.
The study presents a complex picture of how many common respiratory viruses interact with the human body and with each other, as well as with common respiratory bacteria. The results are available as an interactive web tool (link is external and opens in a new window) for scientists to generate and test new hypotheses, and are described in a new peer-reviewed article in the journal PLoS Biology.
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Over 19 months, 214 volunteers enrolled in the Virome of Manhattan study provided nasal swab samples, which were analyzed by molecular testing (RNA-seq and qPCR) along with daily individual reports of symptoms and demographic information. Most infections were caused by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Only 8 percent of positive samples had evidence of multiple viral coinfections (one case was positive for five different viruses). The study found that influenza causes more changes in gene expression than other viruses, such as coronavirus or rhinovirus. Their findings also indicated a possible relationship between repeated exposure to pathogens and host responses.
“The repeated emergence of influenza and coronavirus pandemic outbreaks emphasizes the need for a better understanding of host-pathogen interactions in respiratory infections,” said study co-first author Marta Galanti, PhD, environmental health sciences at Columbia University. says an associate research scientist at. Mailman School of Public Health.
“Identifying the main biological pathways by which viruses interact with our bodies will be important for developing therapeutic tools such as antivirals or vaccines, as well as identifying at-risk individuals for seasonal respiratory viruses and emerging pandemic threats,” the study co-authors say. It is important to identify better.” —Senior author Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman and interim dean of Columbia Climate School.
An earlier study using data from the same group found that reinfection with endemic coronaviruses is not uncommon, even within a year of prior infection. The study found that when re-infection did occur, it was not associated with less severe symptoms. Instead, genetic factors may be more determinative of the severity of an infection.
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