COVID-19

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to study COVID-19, from comparing mortality rates between SARS-CoV-2 variants to examining the effectiveness of maternal vaccination in protecting infants and combating COVID-19 misinformation on social media.

Targeting internal proteins instead of spike proteins may be a promising strategy for monoclonal antibody therapy to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

A new Northwestern Medicine study shows antibodies generated by prior vaccinations or infections can actually “hurt” subsequent COVID-19 booster shots.

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health outcomes and society, from maternal vaccinations and antibody response to reducing burnout amongst healthcare workers and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Secondary bacterial pneumonia that did not resolve was a key driver of death in patients with COVID-19, according to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The surge in RSV cases following the COVID-19 pandemic may have been, in part, caused by increased testing and changes to the RSV genome, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications.

Scientists have developed a machine-learning approach to track the evolution of the COVID-19 virus and potentially others, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

U.S. adults with certain socio-demographic and clinical characteristics may have weaker antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccination, according to a recent study published in Nature Communications.

Testing performance of rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 improved for both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients after testing multiple times in 48-hour intervals, according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A new Northwestern Medicine study has revealed a connection between COVID-19 infection and cancer regression, which could pave the way for novel cancer treatments.

The COVID-19 virus spreads via mucus once inside an infected airway, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications.

What do we know about the effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters, and how might they better protect us from new variants such as omicron? Alexis Demonbreun, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology, offers insight. She is the author of a new study that shows COVID-19 boosters seem to supercharge antibody response.

Judd Hultquist, PhD, talks about key variants of SARS-CoV-2 and how his lab is identifying and studying these variants.

As the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is causing breakthrough infections in some vaccinated people around the world, scientists at Northwestern Medicine are developing and studying potential next-generation COVID-19 vaccines that could be more effective at preventing and clearing breakthrough infections. Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Feinberg, discusses work in his lab that could lead to better vaccines and treatments for coronaviruses.

Accelerating new advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is an important goal of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) and the past two years have been a crucial time for the study of infectious diseases. Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern and director of NUCATS, discusses some milestone discoveries made and recent lessons from the COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDs pandemics.

For some who contract COVID, symptoms can last for quite some time as part of a condition known as “long COVID.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID symptoms typically appear anywhere from two to 14 days after someone is exposed to the virus. The CDC says most people with COVID-19 “get better within a few days to a few weeks after infection.” COVID “long-haulers,” are defined as individuals who have had COVID symptoms for six or more weeks, Northwestern Medicine has said. A study from Northwestern Medicine last year showed that many so-called COVID “long-haulers” continue to experience symptoms like brain fog, tingling, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus and fatigue an average of 15 months after the onset of the virus.

Chicago resident Arthur “Art” Gillespie fell ill in early March 2020 with COVID, after he and his father went to visit an uncle in a nursing facility. “I was hospitalized for 12 days with a high fever and cough, and during that time, they were taking scans of my lungs, which showed stage 1 lung cancer on my right lung,” Gillespie, 56, recalled in a news release. “I had no symptoms of lung cancer, so in a way – because of COVID – we were able to catch the cancer early.” Gillespie had one lung damaged by cancer and the other damaged by COVID, ultimately leaving him with just one last chance for survival. Doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago saved his life through a double-lung transplant that took place in January – the first such procedure involving two lungs damaged by two different ailments, they said. “When Arthur first came to see us in September 2023, even though he looked physically strong, he could barely speak a single sentence without getting short of breath or take a few steps before having to sit down,” Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, said in a news release. “The pressure inside the lungs had also increased to a point that it was causing heart failure, and his only option for survival was a double-lung transplant,” added Bharat, who performed Gillespie’s surgery. “Despite being told ‘no’ by other doctors, Arthur had the courage and determination to keep searching for answers,” Bharat said. “I feel honored that we were able to help him since he spent so many years helping the community as a police captain.”

A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates in Chicago — as well as nationwide — remain concerningly low for some public health experts. While symptoms and severity seem to be about the same as previous COVID strains, the new FLiRT variants appear to be more transmissible, said infectious disease expert Robert Murphy, MD, . “A new, more contagious variant is out there,” said Murphy, executive director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Global Health and a professor of infectious diseases at the Feinberg School of Medicine. “COVID-19 is still with us, and compared to flu and RSV, COVID-19 can cause significant problems off-season.” Murphy urged the public to get up to date on COVID shots, particularly individuals who are at higher risk for severe complications from the virus. While much of the population has some immunity from vaccination or previous COVID infections, Murphy noted that “with COVID-19, immunity wanes over time.”

The COVID-19 virus may have the surprising ability to shrink some tumors, paving the way for new cancer treatments, a new study has found. The research, conducted at the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute and set to be the cover story for the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, began after a recent discovery. In some cases, cancer patients with a severe COVID-19 infection saw a temporary regression of their cancer, said Ankit Bharat, MBBS, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Canning Thoracic Institute. “That was what really sparked our interest,” Bharat said. Bharat and his team, investigating why that regression happened, learned that the RNA within the COVID-19 virus triggers the development of a unique immune cell that can fight cancer. The findings will help develop a treatment that mimics how the virus makes those immune cells. The results show promise for treating some of the most common cancers, including melanoma, lung, breast and colon cancer, Bharat said. The study was done using both human tissues and animal models. Researchers found that the COVID-19 virus is able to transform the common monocyte, a white blood cell in the immune system, into a powerful immune cell. Those cells are then able to travel and attack cancer cells inside tumors. “It’s incredible, and a big surprise, that the same infection that caused so much devastation can help create a cancer-fighting cell,” Bharat said.

Viruses don’t often come with silver linings, and infections don’t generally lead to positive health effects. But during the pandemic, some doctors anecdotally began noticing that some people with cancer who got very sick with COVID-19 saw their tumors shrink or grow more slowly. “We didn’t know if it was real, because these patients were so sick,” says Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern University. “Was it because the immune system was so triggered by COVID-19 that it also started to kill cancer cells? What was it?” Bharat and his team decided conduct a study to find out if the seeming “benefit” of COVID-19 for these cancer patients could teach them anything about a potential new way to fight cancer—or if it was simply a red herring. They published their findings Nov. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Another intriguing part of the equation, says Bharat, is that this pathway is independent of the T cell immune treatments that are becoming a big part of cancer therapy now, in which doctors boost the population of T cells that can recognize and attack cancer cells. They can be effective, but generally only work for a while, since cancers quickly find ways to circumvent the T cells and become resistant to the therapies.

By studying long COVID patients with abnormal lung CT scans, Northwestern Medicine researchers may have found a cellular commonality in many types of pulmonary fibrosis, which could lead to breakthroughs in preventing and treating PF. The study of long COVID remains in its infancy, with no FDA-approved treatment available, but the pandemic may be spawning new research into other medical areas, says the head of Northwestern’s long COVID center. A study released this morning in the journal Nature Immunology describes how pulmonologists at the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center noticed many of their long COVID patients had persistently abnormal CT scans of their lungs. Researchers wanted to know why. Specifically, what was it about the virus responsible for COVID-19 that was acting on some patients’ lungs to create a kind of pulmonary fibrosis that wouldn’t go away? “As we put together imaging of patients, a lot of them over three, six, nine months or more had CT scans that showed pretty clear fibrosis,” said Marc Sala, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-director of the center. “People had this way too far out than what most viral infections are going to do.”