United States: Researchers have found that a gene called OLAH affects how serious respiratory viral infections can become. The study which is led by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and published in the journal Cell, showed that high levels of OLAH are linked to more severe infections, while lower levels are associated with milder cases and recovery. Dr. Brendon Chua from the University of Melbourne helped lead this research
Study Insights and Expert Opinions
As reported by Doherty Institute, “Our first ‘aha’ moment occurred during our analysis of patients hospitalised with A(H7N9) influenza, where we discovered a consistent association between high expression levels of OLAH and fatal outcomes. Conversely, patients who recovered exhibited very low OLAH expression throughout their hospital stay,” said Dr Chua.
The researchers and the health experts found out that elevated levels of OLAH in the patients severely infected with the seasonal influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2 respiratory syncytial virus RSV and also in the children experiencing multisystem inflammatory syndrome and a on typical condition which is associated with COVID-19 but not in some mild cases.
Future Potential and Ongoing Research
The University of Melbourne’s Professor Katherine Kedzierska who is the head of the Human T cell Laboratory at the Doherty Institute who has already been leading to this research since 2013 and which focuses the importance of research in advancing our understanding of respiratory viruses and its potential far-reaching which also impacts the patients’ health.
“We’re really excited about the potential of the OLAH gene to serve as a universal indicator of disease severity across different respiratory infections,” said Professor Kedzierska.
“Imagine if your doctor could predict whether your respiratory infection will become which ultimately become life-threatening or if you’ll recover quickly?”
So this particular team is working on developing OLAH-based diagnostic methods that can be deployed in the clinics to screen hospitalised patients upon the admission and differentiate between those who will recover and those who will face this life-threatening outcomes.
Research Insights
However showing the importance of this specific discovery Dr Jeremy Chase Crawford from the St Jude Department of Host-Microbe Interactions and also the Center for the infectious Disease Research co-first author of the study and emphasised the potential for the future research.
“It took years of working closely with basic scientists and clinicians, from across the world, all studying different infections and diseases, for OLAH’s important role in immune response to come to light. This is just the beginning of our exploration of OLAH; there is a lot more work to be done in infectious disease and other potential applications,” said Dr Crawford.
About the Author
