A recent study has been conducted to understand a rare disease known as paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS-TS) that has emerged in a few children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study findings will be beneficial in treatment of this new rare disease that affects children.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. The study focuses on explaining the alternation of the immune system in children suffering from the disease and the risk of developing deadly conditions like severe inflammation and heart damage related to the disease.
Researchers used about 25 children in the study who were suffering from coronavirus as well as PIMS-TS and used their blood samples to unravel some of the facts associated with PIMS-TS . Blood samples of children who had been in close contact with someone suffering from coronavirus were also taken and analysed.
Blood samples were then tested at different stages of the disease, from the acute phase when the children were initially admitted for the treatment in hospital to their outpatient appointments. The results derived from testing those blood samples were then compared to blood tests results of seven healthy age-matched children.
Scientists found that in the acute stage of PIMS-TS, levels of cytokines (cell-cell signalling molecules) increased in children suffering from it. While levels of the immune system’s white blood cells called lymphocytes got reduced in their bodies. Immune systems of recovered children were found to be gradually returning to their normal state. Previous research reports on the syndrome suggest that its condition is likely to be similar to the existing inflammatory conditions such as Kawasaki disease. Though the new study has confirmed that PIMS-TS is a new syndrome and that it affects the body in a different way to other known conditions.
Study author Manu Shankar-Hari from King’s College London said, “These immune changes (related to PIMS-TS) are complex. The innate, otherwise known as the rapidly responding, immune cells are activated. The lymphocytes, a particular type of white cell involved in specific protective immunity, are depleted, but appear to be actively fighting infection in the patients with the syndrome.”
He added, “Clinically, these children respond to treatments that calm the immune system such as corticosteroid and immunoglobulins. Although there are similarities to existing conditions such as Kawasaki Disease, these clinical and immunological changes that we observe imply that PIMS-TS is a distinct illness associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections”.