Treating children with COVID

Proteins in saliva could help predict the severity of a COVID infection in children, according to researchers.

A study, which started in January, looks at the relationship between cytokines and COVID infections and how that relationship can help predict the severity of infection.

Dr. Steven Hicks, a pediatrician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and co-author of the study, spoke with news media recently about the study and preliminary analysis of the data.

“We are trying to identify a rapid and noninvasive way to tell whether a child who’s been infected with COVID is at risk for severe symptoms that might land them in an intensive care setting and require a higher level of care,” Hicks said. “As a general pediatrician, that’s important to me because I’ve seen a lot of children with COVID over the last several months and it’s sometimes difficult to predict for parents whether what looked like just early cold or upper respiratory symptoms might progress to something more severe.”

The number of COVID cases involving anyone under age 18 — from babies to high school seniors — is 10 times higher than a year ago. Overall in Pennsylvania, it’s about 25 percent.

Cytokines, proteins found in blood and saliva, may be produced in response to a COVID infection.

The study is looking at cytokines and microRNAs, noncoding RNAs, in saliva in children as the biomarkers may control the inflammation in the body once infected with the virus, and that may help determine the seriousness of the infection.

The study, Severity Predictors Integrating Salivary Transcriptomics and Proteomics with

Multineural Network Intelligence in SARS-CoV2 infection in Children; SPITS-MISC, was presented recently at the 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition.

Being able to determine if a child with a COVID infection is at greater risk of having severe symptoms would not only help health care providers give families a better idea of what the next days and weeks may look like, but also help provide better guidance for families and