PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New study finds high-dose inhaled nitric oxide decreases the risk of death among critically ill Black patients with COVID-19

2024-02-28
(Press-News.org)

In a first-of-its-kind study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, physician-scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine discovered that high-dose inhaled nitric oxide therapy may improve oxygenation and reduce the risk of mortality among critically ill Black patients with COVID-19.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, is a condition that most commonly occurs in the setting of a lung infection such as COVID-19.

“In ARDS, the barrier between the blood vessels and air sacs in the lungs is disrupted leading to the accumulation of fluid from the blood vessels in the air sacs, restricting air exchange in the lungs,” said Naman S. Shetty, M.D., a research fellow in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease and the first author of this manuscript. “Poor air exchange in ARDS leads to organ damage and increases the risk of death. Therefore, increasing oxygenation in ARDS may improve survival and decrease organ damage. However, it may not be possible to maintain oxygenation in patients with ARDS when providing external support for breathing using a mechanical ventilator.”

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessing the ever-increasing mortality of COVID-19 patients led Pankaj Arora, M.D., the senior author of the manuscript and an associate professor in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease, to collaborate with Lorenzo Berra, M.D., to initiate the NOSARSCOVID trial, an international multicenter trial to examine the effects of high-dose inhaled nitric oxide on improving oxygenation in COVID-19 patients who required support from a mechanical ventilator. 

Trials are rare in critically ill patients due to enrollment difficulties; therefore, this effort provided a much-needed boost in critical care research during the pandemic. The primary trial revealed that high-dose inhaled nitric oxide therapy improved oxygenation.  

As an extension of the NOSARSCOVID trial, Shetty and his team assessed whether racial differences in the response to inhaled nitric oxide were present. The trial recruited a diverse patient population, allowing them to effectively examine this research question. 

“In the study, we evaluated whether the improvement in oxygenation and risk reduction in mortality differed among white and Black patients recruited in the trial,” Shetty said. “Inhaled nitric oxide therapy was associated with a larger improvement in oxygenation among Black patients compared with white patients. Most notably, inhaled nitric oxide therapy reduced the risk of death at 28 and 90 days in Black patients. This benefit was not observed among white patients.”

Arora says these findings may be due to differences in biological systems among different races and ethnicities. 

“To ascertain that self-reported race could indicate biological differences, we used data from the All of Us Research Program and restricted the data to include populations where patients were recruited from in our trial,” Arora said. “This was done to determine whether the self-reported race is a good surrogate for genetic ancestry in these individuals. We found that the self-reported race in these geographical areas was a good proxy for genetic ancestry.” 

Arora says the differences observed in this study may be attributed to differences in the nitric oxide system. 

“Black individuals have been shown to have a suppressed nitric oxide system at baseline compared with white individuals,” Arora said. “The suppressed nitric oxide system in Black individuals increases their susceptibility to developing severe ARDS with a high risk of death. Treatment with inhaled nitric oxide overcomes this intrinsic deficit in the nitric oxide system in Black individuals.”

Arora says this study calls for a larger phase three trial to test the hypothesis in Black patients. Arora explains that, due to the complexity of conducting trials in critical care, the inclusion of a diverse population was traditionally placed lower on the list of priorities.

“Our study highlights that the treatment effect of an intervention may vary by race,” Arora said. “Therefore, there is a need for adequate representation of minority populations in large clinical trials. Furthermore, our study draws attention to the individualization of treatment based on the patient. Precision phenotyping techniques incorporating clinical, physiological, imaging and molecular markers may help guide physicians to individualize therapy in ARDS.”

 

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Ochsner Digital Medicine Partners with Humana Healthy Horizons

Ochsner Digital Medicine Partners with Humana Healthy Horizons
2024-02-28
New Orleans, LA. – Ochsner Digital Medicine has partnered with Humana Healthy Horizons to provide digital medicine services to its members. This agreement was effective February 1, 2024, with member enrollment in digital programs available immediately after. Humana Healthy Horizons is Humana’s Medicaid plan for Louisiana, covering thousands of members throughout the state. Through this partnership, Ochsner Digital Medicine will offer Humana Healthy Horizons members who have been diagnosed with Hypertension and Type 2 diabetes remote programs designed to manage and control their conditions. The programs use remote patient management through digital devices and personalized ...

Vision Zero road safety projects in Seattle are unlikely to have negative impacts on local business sales, UW study finds

2024-02-28
Seattle is routinely listed as one of the most walkable and bike-friendly cities in the nation. The city government has committed to Vision Zero, which aims to completely eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030, and embarked on a slew of infrastructure projects: expanding the city’s bike network, redesigning high-crash intersections and enhancing crosswalks to protect pedestrians.  Such safety projects sometimes meet opposition from local business owners, who worry that reduced parking and disruption ...

African great apes predicted to see frequent extreme climate events in the next 30 years

African great apes predicted to see frequent extreme climate events in the next 30 years
2024-02-28
African apes are already being exposed to climate change impacts, and will experience extreme events such as wildfires, heatwaves and flooding more frequently in the next 30 years, according to a study publishing February 28 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Razak Kiribou at Haramaya University in Ethiopia and colleagues. To better understand how African great apes will be affected by climate change, researchers investigated past and future climate for 363 sites across Africa. They estimated temperature and rainfall at each site between 1981 and 2010. Using two climate change scenarios, they projected how frequently apes would be exposed to climate change impacts in the near ...

EU countries have seen a decade of progress towards their 2030 sustainable energy goal

EU countries have seen a decade of progress towards their 2030 sustainable energy goal
2024-02-28
Countries in the European Union (EU) have made progress over the past decade toward Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which calls for “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030, according to a study published February 28, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marek Walesiak from Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland, and Grażyna Dehnel from Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland. In 2015, the United Nations developed 17 global Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. Tenets of SDG 7 include universal access to affordable energy; increased renewable energy ...

Climate change threatens thousands of archaeological sites in coastal Georgia

Climate change threatens thousands of archaeological sites in coastal Georgia
2024-02-28
Thousands of historic and archaeological sites in Georgia are at risk from tropical storm surges, and that number will increase with climate change, according to a study published February 28, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Matthew D. Howland and Victor D. Thompson of Wichita State University and the University of Georgia. Anthropogenic climate change poses a major risk to coastlines due to rising sea level and increasingly severe tropical storms. This threatens not only living populations but also historic and archaeological sites. Mitigating damage requires accurate assessments of risks, but most predictive models focus on projected ...

Pet dogs with diarrhea may be shedding multi-drug resistant E.coli in 5 in 10 cases, with potential risks to their human owners

Pet dogs with diarrhea may be shedding multi-drug resistant E.coli in 5 in 10 cases, with potential risks to their human owners
2024-02-28
Pet dogs with diarrhea may be shedding multi-drug resistant E.coli in 5 in 10 cases, with potential risks to their human owners ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298053 Article Title: Characteristics of MDR E. coli strains isolated from Pet Dogs with clinic diarrhea: A pool of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence-associated genes Author Countries: China Funding: This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0500900, ...

Harassment on public transport negatively impacts women's health and welfare, with existing measures being largely ineffective, per systematic review

Harassment on public transport negatively impacts womens health and welfare, with existing measures being largely ineffective, per systematic review
2024-02-28
Harassment on public transport negatively impacts women's health and welfare, with existing measures being largely ineffective, per systematic review ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0296830 Article Title: Invasion of privacy or structural violence? Harassment against women in public transport environments: A systematic review Author Countries: Spain Funding: This study has been supported by the research grant ACIF/2020/035 from the "Generalitat Valenciana". The funding entity did not contribute to the study design or data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing the manuscript. There was no additional ...

How the SARS-CoV-2 virus acquires its spherical shape

How the SARS-CoV-2 virus acquires its spherical shape
2024-02-28
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- For centuries, coronaviruses have triggered health crises and economic challenges, with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that spreads COVID-19, being a recent example. One small protein in SARS-CoV-2, the Membrane protein, or M protein, is the most abundant and plays a crucial role in how the virus acquires its spherical structure. Nonetheless, this protein’s properties are not well understood. A research team led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has devised a new method to make large quantities of M protein, and has characterized the protein’s ...

A step toward personalized immunotherapy for all

A step toward personalized immunotherapy for all
2024-02-28
LA JOLLA, CA—Most cancers are thought to evade the immune system. These cancers don't carry very many mutations, and they aren’t infiltrated by cancer-fighting immune cells. Scientists call these cancers immunologically "cold." Now new research suggests such cancers aren't as "cold" as once thought. Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and UC San Diego, have found that patients with "cold" tumors actually do make cancer-fighting T cells.  This discovery opens the door to developing vaccines or therapies to increase T cell ...

Drying without dying: Tracing water scarcity coping mechanisms from mosses to flowering plants

Drying without dying: Tracing water scarcity coping mechanisms from mosses to flowering plants
2024-02-28
Imagine: You find the dried-up remains of a once green and lush philodendron on your bookshelf and realize you can’t remember the last time you watered your houseplants. You soak the soil with water, hoping you can breathe life back into its desiccated husk, but it is futile. The plant has been too dehydrated for too long, and irreparable damage has been done. Now imagine that it isn’t your neglected houseplants that have been subjected to an unexpectedly dry growing season, but a field of wheat. With changes in global climate, such things are becoming more common and more of a concern for farmers, consumers, and researchers alike as the threat to food security intensifies. But ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

CMD-OPT model enables the discovery of a potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor as preclinical candidate for the treatment of acute liver injury

Melatonin receptor 1a alleviates sleep fragmentation-aggravated testicular injury in T2DM by suppression of TAB1/TAK1 complex through FGFR1

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals Shen-Bai-Jie-Du decoction retards colorectal tumorigenesis by regulating the TMEM131–TNF signaling pathway-mediated differentiation of immunosuppressive dendritic ce

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B Volume 15, Issue 7 Publishes

New research expands laser technology

Targeted radiation offers promise in patients with metastasized small cell lung cancer to the brain

A high clinically translatable strategy to anti-aging using hyaluronic acid and silk fibroin co-crosslinked hydrogels as dermal regenerative fillers

Mount Sinai researchers uncover differences in how males and females change their mind when reflecting on past mistakes

CTE and normal aging are difficult to distinguish, new study finds

Molecular arms race: How the genome defends itself against internal enemies

Tiny chip speeds up antibody mapping for faster vaccine design

KTU experts reveal why cultural heritage is important for community unity

More misfolded proteins than previously known may contribute to Alzheimer’s and dementia

“Too much going on”: Autistic adults overwhelmed by non-verbal social cues

What’s driving America’s deep freezes in a warming world?

A key role of brain protein in learning and memory is deciphered by scientists

Heart attacks don’t follow a Hollywood script

Erin M. Schuman wins 2026 Nakasone Award for discovery on neural synapse function and change during formation of memories

Global ocean analysis could replace costly in-situ sound speed profiles in seafloor positioning, study finds

Power in numbers: Small group professional coaching reduces rates of physician burnout by nearly 30%

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage: A comprehensive review of CCUS-EOR

New high-temperature stable dispersed particle gel for enhanced profile control in CCUS applications

State gun laws and firearm-related homicides and suicides

Use of tobacco and cannabis following state-level cannabis legalization

Long-term obesity and biological aging in young adults

Eindhoven University of Technology and JMIR Publications announce unlimited open access publishing agreement

Orphan nuclear receptors in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease development

A technological breakthrough for ultra-fast and greener AI

Pusan National University researchers identify key barriers hindering data-driven smart manufacturing adoption

Inking heterometallic nanosheets: A scalable breakthrough for coating, electronics, and electrocatalyst applications

[Press-News.org] New study finds high-dose inhaled nitric oxide decreases the risk of death among critically ill Black patients with COVID-19