COVID-19 & Liver/GI disease [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the impact of COVID-19 in patients with new or established liver or gastrointestinal diseases.
IRAS ID
282522
Contact name
Patrick T F Kennedy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Since December 2019, a new virus (COVID-19) causing a clinical picture of a pneumonia/pneumonitis in humans has been identified in Wuhan, China. The clinical manifestations of the infection vary from no symptoms to pneumonia, and can lead to rapid death in a proportion of patients. On 11th March, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. COVID-19 can infect anyone, however, those with existing co-morbidities are at greater risk of developing complications leading to poorer outcomes. With a focus on liver and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, we aim to investigate the impact of COVID-19 in patients with conditions related to the liver and/or GI tract. This will allow us to learn more about COVID-19 in these patients, the need to modify pre-existing therapies for established diseases and move forward with curative therapeutic design based on data from our translational research.\n\nWe will take blood samples from adult patients with liver/GI conditions with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 infection and compare these with patients with liver/GI conditions without COVID-19 infection. We will also sample patients that do not have liver/GI conditions with and without COVID-19 infection for further comparison. During the early stages of infection we will take an index blood sample from patients [to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), serum and plasma)] to analyse immune and viral responses and then when they have cleared infection. Given the radical and urgent public health measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear, from the Government, media and public that such research is urgently required and will ultimately benefit the wider public, including those with and without liver/GI disease.
Lay summary of study results:
The aim and main research question of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection in patients with pre-existing liver and GI conditions. We sampled blood from adults patients with liver/GI conditions with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 infection and compared these with patients with liver/GI conditions without COVID-19 infection. We also sampled patients that did not have liver/GI conditions with and without COVID-19 infection for further comparison. We also sampled subjects following vaccination to determine differential immune responses.We initially used samples to explore patient factors looking at the severity of COVID-19 and then determined the effect of different vaccines. We showed that a molecular pathway (β-NGF/TrkA signalling pathway) associated with the development of antibodies against COVID-19. We also examined the immune responses with different vaccines and showed the combining different vaccines may show better responses in COVID-19 protection.
REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EE/0154
Date of REC Opinion
30 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion