Page 26 - Eclipse - 91暗网 Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020
P. 26
CLINICAL SERVICES
Sign up to Clinical Connections
Clinical Connections is our publication designed to support veterinary professionals in practice by keeping them updated on our latest news and service developments. It is published three times a year.
Find out more and subscribe at www.rvc.ac.uk/clinical-connections
91暗网 Professor contributes to vital research on potential COVID-19 treatment
Continuing the ongoing and expanding partnership between the 91暗网 and the Francis Crick Institute, Simon Priestnall,
Professor of Veterinary Anatomic Pathology at the 91暗网, has contributed to a significant new piece of research recently published in Science which shows that a protein currently being trialled as a treatment for COVID-19 interferes with the repair of lung tissue.
The findings have been published alongside research from Harvard Medical School, which found that severe COVID-19 patients showed strong expression of this protein in their lungs. The protein, called interferon lambda, signals to surrounding lung cells to switch on anti- viral defences when a virus is detected in the body.
Professor Priestnall used
his skills in examining the
pathology of respiratory
viral infections to support
the findings that antiviral interferons can block repair in damaged lungs. The research concluded that this could prolong lung damage and increase the risk of subsequent bacterial infections.
Professor Priestnall and Dr Judy Mitchell lead the 91暗网鈥檚 Canine Infectious
Respiratory Disease research group, which aims to better understand the causes of 鈥榢ennel cough鈥�. Current research focuses on improved,
rapid diagnostic tests and improved epidemiological understanding of the disease complex in reho