This article is reproduced from: Health Times
(Compiled by Qiu Yue, Health Times) On May 14, local time, the international authoritative academic journal “The Lancet Gastroenterology and Gastroenterology” The latest research report on acute hepatitis of unknown cause in children published by Hepatplogy stated that the unexplained childhood hepatitis found in many countries around the world may be related to the superantigen of the new coronavirus.
On May 10, Easterbrook, Senior Scientist, WHO Global Hepatitis 348 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology have been reported in children.
According to the “Lancet Gastroenterology” article, most children develop early gastrointestinal symptoms, which later develop jaundice and, in some cases, jaundice. Acute liver failure occurs. Currently, no common environmental exposures have been found in these children, and researchers are more inclined to believe that it is caused by a viral infection.
Although hepatitis A, B, C, D and E were not detected in these children, 72% of children with unexplained hepatitis were diagnosed in the UK Adenovirus infection was detected in 18 of them, 41 were detected as adenovirus. However, according to the current knowledge, 41 adenovirus infection does not cause severe acute hepatitis, so the researchers once again pointed back to the new coronavirus.
According to reports of unexplained hepatitis cases in the UK, 18% of children tested positive for Covid-19, and 11% tested positive for Covid-19 on admission. In addition, 3 additional cases were found to have been infected with the new coronavirus 8 weeks before admission. And 11 of the 12 newly reported children with hepatitis in Israel have been infected with the new coronavirus in recent months.
The article pointed out that infection of children with the new coronavirus can lead to the formation of a virus reservoir in the body, that is, the persistence of the new coronavirus in the gastrointestinal tract of children, It can lead to repeated release of viral proteins in intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in immune activation. This repeated immune activation may be mediated by the superantigen motif in the spike protein of the new coronavirus, which can broadly trigger and activate non-specific T cells in patients. Activation has been suggested to be the mechanism responsible for the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
The article recommends that long-term monitoring of feces of children with acute hepatitis should be performed, and if evidence of SARS-CoV-2 superantigen-mediated immune activation is found, consideration should be given to patients with severe acute hepatitis. Immunomodulatory therapy in children.