disease & medicine, inflammation

Researchers find traces of SARS-CoV-2 in the stool and blood of kids with the post–COVID-19 inflammatory disorder, and signs of increased intestinal permeability.

Many major biopharmaceutical companies are developing or acquiring drugs that target the NLRP3 inflammasome, a large intracellular complex that researchers say can spark inflammation and stoke diseases of lifestyle and aging.

Researchers have collected hundreds of COVID-19–related diabetes case reports since August of last year, in hopes of teasing apart the complex links between the two diseases.

A meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials concludes that dexamethasone and other corticosteroids reduce 28-day mortality in seriously ill patients.

A handful of viruses have been associated with long-term, debilitating symptoms in a subset of those who become infected. Early signs hint that SARS-CoV-2 may do the same.

The presence of a particular set of RNAs in the blood forewarns of an onset of severe symptoms and points to the cells involved.

The cholesterol-lowering drugs quell inflammation and reverse endothelial tissue damage, hints that they might curb the body’s excessive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

By studying influenza in mice and cells, researchers identify a glucose metabolism pathway critical to the dysregulated immune response that kills many infectious disease patients, including those with COVID-19.

The symptoms suggest SARS-CoV-2 might infect neurons, raising questions about whether there could be effects on the brain that play a role in patients’ deaths, but the data are preliminary.

A mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis reveals that a tiny protein in scorpion venom can deliver steroids to affected joints.

THC, the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, improved symptoms associated with the inflammatory disease in a mouse model.

An accumulation of T cells and astrocytes in postmortem brain tissue hints at possible autoimmune origins for many cases of autism.

Normal hair growth can lead to infection during cancer treatment.

Oligomannate, recently approved in China, is being met with some skepticism from researchers.

The results suggest the virus could severely alter brain development in infants infected after birth, but blocking a signaling protein early on might ease certain symptoms.