School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-15-2020
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has produced a world-wide collapse of social and economic infrastructure, as well as constrained our freedom of movement. This respiratory tract infection is nefarious in how it targets the most distal and highly vulnerable aspect of the human bronchopulmonary tree, specifically, the delicate yet irreplaceable alveoli that are responsible for the loading of oxygen upon red cell hemoglobin for use by all of the body's tissues.
In most symptomatic individuals, the disease is a mild immune-mediated syndrome, with limited damage to the lung tissues. About 20% of those affected experience a disease course characterized by a cataclysmic set of immune activation responses that can culminate in the diffuse and irreversible obliteration of the distal alveoli, leading to a virtual collapse of the gas-exchange apparatus.
Here, in Part I of a duology on the characterization and potential treatment for COVID-19, we define severe COVID-19 as a consequence of the ability of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to trigger what we now designate for the first time as a ‘Prolific Activation of a Network-Immune-Inflammatory Crisis’, or ‘PANIC’ Attack, in the alveolar tree. In Part II we describe an immunotherapeutic hypothesis worthy of the organization of a randomized clinical trial in order to ascertain whether a repurposed, generic, inexpensive, and widely available agent is capable of abolishing ‘PANIC’; thereby preventing or mitigating severe COVID-19, with monumental ramifications for world health, and the global pandemic that continues to threaten it.
Recommended Citation
Frohman, E. M., Villemarette-Pittman, N. R., Melamed, E., Cruz, R. A., Longmuir, R., Varkey, T. C., Steinman, L., Zamvil, S. S., & Frohman, T. C. (2020). Part I. SARS-CoV-2 triggered 'PANIC' attack in severe COVID-19. Journal of the neurological sciences, 415, 116936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2020.116936
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Journal of the Neurological Sciences
DOI
10.1016/j.jns.2020.116936
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Neurology
Comments
Copyright © 2020 The Author(s)