Investigating biomarkers of inflammation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Analysis of inflammatory markers in health and disease
IRAS ID
313060
Contact name
Sarah L Buchan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bournemouth University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Inflammation is a broad term relevant to many disease states and detectable by an increase in specific proteins in the serum, including cytokines. COVID-19 induces an inflammatory response in infected individuals, yet the inflammatory profiles differ between patients in ways that are currently poorly understood. Much research has focussed on the classical inflammatory cytokines such as type I interferons, IL-6 and TNF which predominate early during infection, and recent data have highlighted type I interferons and persistent cytokines associated with ‘long-haul COVID’. Our key goals are twofold:
1. Firstly, we aim to gain insight into the breadth and diversity of inflammatory profiles observed in patients, beyond cytokine markers.
2. Secondly we aim to determine whether distinct inflammatory profiles can be used to stratify patients with COVID-19 in order to predict patient outcome.
We propose to focus predominantly on the study of soluble members of the tumour necrosis receptor (TNFRSF) superfamily and associated proteins. This family of proteins play an important role in multiple autoimmune and inflammatory conditions where they act as biomarkers of disease. Furthermore, several members of this family are currently being explored by us and others as biotherapeutics. We therefore anticipate that this work will identify new therapeutic targets and open new avenues to understand the pathology of COVID-19.REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SW/0104
Date of REC Opinion
23 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion