Why is COVID-19 milder in kids?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-23 08:19

International

Scientists are still figuring out how COVID-19 develops differently in children and adults. A team has delved into molecular variations by comparing nasal, tracheal, bronchial and blood samples from COVID-19 and healthy control patients from infancy to adulthood. Age differences in disease may be explained by several factors including children’s higher innate immune cell responses in the airways, which restricts viral spread, and distinct systemic immune responses in adults and kids. The authors say these fresh insights could help pinpoint the triggers - and therefore treatments - of severe disease in adults.

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Journal/
conference: Nature

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University College London, Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University of Cambridge, Newcastle University (UK) and Jikei University School of Medicine (Japan) and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (US)

Funder: We acknowledge funding from Wellcome (WT211276/Z/18/Z and Sanger core grant WT206194). M.Z.N, S.M.J and K.B.M have been funded by the Rosetrees Trust (M944, M35-F2) and from Action Medical Research (GN2911). This project has been made possible in part by grants 2017-174169 and 2019-202654 from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 874656. M.Z.N. acknowledges funding from the Rutherford Fund Fellowship allocated by the MRC, and M.Z.N. and S.M.J. from the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform 2 (MR/5005579/1), the Longfonds BREATH consortium and University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. M.Y. is funded by The Jikei University School of Medicine. KBW acknowledges funding from University College London, Birkbeck MRC Doctoral Training Programme. C.M.S and M.Z.N. acknowledge support from BBSRC (BB/V006738/1). S.S. was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Overseas Fellowship (310072). R.G.W. was supported by NIH grant U19AI135964 and a GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health grant from the CHEST Foundation. A.V.M. was supported by NIH grant U19AI135964. This publication is part of the Human Cell Atlas - www.humancellatlas.org/publications/. For the purpose of Open Access, the authors have applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Competing interests In the past three years, S.A.T has worked as a consultant for Genentech, Roche and Transition Bio, and is a remunerated member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Qiagen, GlaxoSmithKline and Foresite Labs and an equity holder of Transition Bio. P.M. is a Medical Research Council-GlaxoSmithKline (MRC-GSK) Experimental Medicine Initiative to Explore New Therapies (EMINENT) clinical training fellow with project funding, has served on an advisory board for SOBI, outside the submitted work, and receives co-funding by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (UCLH BRC).

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