Scholarship Student Publishes Research Aimed to Mitigate Effects of COVID-19
King Khalid University's dedication to contributing their research capabilities to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic is well documented, with dozens of projects and initiatives launched in record time. Heeding the call of academic innovation and the Hippocratic Oath, Adel Abo Mansour from the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences at the College of Applied Medical Sciences shared first co-authorship with a team of researchers from the University of Naples Federico II and the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (ICVS) at the University of Birmingham. The research paper entitled, "Could IL-17 represent a new therapeutic target for the treatment and/or management of COVID-19-related respiratory syndrome?: This paper is dedicated to Sofia Maione born during COVID-19 outbreak", is published in the journal of Pharmacological Research and can be accessed by clicking here.
In the article, which is accessible above, the authors aim to access bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and plasma/serum samples from mild- and severe-infected COVID-19 patients to measure IL-17 levels. In doing so, the authors contend that it would "potentially provide a rationale for testing neutralizing antibodies targeting IL-17." The paper, stemming from the immunological point of view, focuses on receptors that play an important role in the spread of inflammation, which may result in damaging body tissues. In that view, the authors also put forth connections and solutions between COVID-19 and Pneumonia, which is a lung infection that causes inflammation in the tiny air sacs inside your lungs.
Vice Rector of Graduate Studies and Research, Prof. Saad Al-Amri, praised the efforts of Abo Mansour and his co-authors to contribute to the solution in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the university encourages such efforts from scholarship students. His Excellency, King Khalid University Rector Prof. Falleh Al-Solamy, commended Abo Mansour on his research efforts to help decision-makers, frontline staff, scientists and engineers, explaining that King Khalid University supports scholarship students that serve national and international efforts in accord with Vision 2030.
