Diagnostics for post-COVID-19 lung fibrosis

SARS-CoV-2的全球传播给世界各地的多个司法管辖区带来了许多医疗保健服务方面的挑战，而这些挑战与该地区的社会经济状况无关。截至2020年5月27日，加拿大有87，482例确诊病例和6760例死亡。急性呼吸窘迫综合征（ARDS）是COVID-19患者死亡的主要原因。ARDS的最终结果是肺水肿、通气能力降低、肺损伤和气体交换受损，导致严重的COVID-19疾病和不良的健康结果。ARDS的主要原因是细胞因子风暴，其中由于不受控制的免疫应答而释放过量水平的细胞因子和趋化因子。使用抗IL-6药物（托珠单抗）的全球临床试验强调了IL-6在COVID-19相关ARDS中的重要性，以及IL-6蛋白升高在肺纤维化发生和进展中的核心作用。 我们合作的目标是将联合收割机在纤维化肺病、IL-6在此过程中的作用以及诊断方面的学术和行业专业知识结合起来，以便能够快速检测COVID-19患者的IL-6，从而主动检测ARDS。 我们的合作伙伴关系的成果和影响将是一个完全集成的诊断系统，大小如烤面包机，可用于床边使用，能够识别哪些患者将发展为ARDS，并需要积极的主动干预，以尽量减少与COVID-19引起的肺损伤相关的发病率和死亡率。

The global transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has imposed numerous healthcare delivery challenges in multiple jurisdictions around the world, independent of socio-economic status of the region. In Canada, there are 87,482 confirmed cases and 6760 deaths as of 27th of May 2020. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the main cause of death for COVID-19 patients. The end result of ARDS is pulmonary oedema, reduced ventilation capacity, lung damage, and impaired gas exchange leading to severe COVID-19 disease and poor health outcomes. The main cause of ARDS is the cytokine storm, in which an excessive level of cytokines and chemokines are released due to an uncontrolled immune responses. The importance of IL-6 in COVID-19 related ARDS is highlighted by the global clinical trials using anti-IL-6 medications (tocilizumab) and the central role that elevated IL-6 protein plays in development and progression of lung fibrosis. The goal of our partnership is to combine academic and industry expertise in fibrotic lung disease, the role of IL-6 in this process, and diagnostics, to enable rapid point-of-need detection of IL-6 in COVID-19 patients for pro-active detection of ARDS. The outcomes and impacts of our partnership will be a fully-integrated diagnostic system the size of a toaster for bedside use, able to identify which patients will develop ARDS and require aggressive pro-active interventions to minimize morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19-induced lung damage.