Characterization Immunology, Biochemical and Lung Microbiome, Correlated With the Ventilation Associated Pneumonia (VAP)

Overview

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is currently a global public health problem, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, which today has more than one million deaths in the world, of which , 30,000 approximately belong to Colombia, being the country number 11 with the highest number of deaths. The most common symptoms related to this disease are fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, headache, diarrhea and rhinorrhea. COVID-19 is characterized by immune system dysfunction and hyperinflammation causing acute respiratory distress syndrome, macrophage activation, and coagulopathy. The clinical course for SARS-CoV-2 in most cases is mild, but approximately 14% of cases can be severe. In pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2, the lung lining is known to alter the composition of the lung microbiome, in addition to lymphocyte damage that can promote the growth of bacteria to initiate bacterial pneumonia, and it is estimated that the prevalence of coinfection / superinfection reaches 50% among deaths from COVID-19. Coinfection between different microorganisms and SARS-CoV-2 is a serious problem in the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is still little information on this. It is for this reason that the researchs propose to develop this research project that will allow to understand the possible mechanisms associated with the development of bacterial coinfection / superinfection in patients diagnosed with COVID-19, which will allow expanding the panorama of knowledge towards a better and adequate treatment in these patients, as well as detection of biomarkers or clinical phenotypics that may be useful in the diagnosis, based on evidence. It is important to note that these results are of clinical importance since we will try to identify biomarkers or changes in the lung microbiome that allow doctors to early identify patients at risk of developing coinfection and thus initiate early treatments or preventive measures, which allow the improvement of clinical outcomes in patients. Results will be presented in a timely manner at national and international conferences and in peer-reviewed, indexed, high-impact journals.

This is a prospective, translational (T0-T2), multicenter, observational, cohort study of consecutive patients with a first clinical phase, where the collection of different types of samples (Bronco alveolar lavage, blood, nasopharyngeal swab, secretion orotracheal and rectal swabbing) at the start of mechanical ventilation, on day 3 and before extubation and another stage of molecular analysis in human samples collected where by different types of techniques such as: characterization of the 16S ribosomal unit, ELISA, time PCR real, concentration and cell discrimination techniques, we will characterize the microbiological, immunological and cellular changes that condition the development of coinfection. Descriptive analytical studies, techniques, and parametric and nonparametric tests will be used to explore diagnostic, microbiological, or subgroup differences, as well as clinical outcomes. Independent predictors and associated hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals will be reported. A two-tailed p value less than 0.05 will be considered statistically significant.