SARS-CoV-2 viral load is associated with increased disease severity and mortality

By Jesse Fajnzylber, J. Regan, Kendyll Coxen, H. Corry, Colline Wong, A. Rosenthal, Daniel P. Worrall, Francoise F. Giguel, A. Piechocka-Trocha, C. Atyeo and 120 more. Nature Communications, 2020

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The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and risk of disease progression remains largely undefined in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we quantify SARS-CoV-2 viral load from participants with a diverse range of COVID-19 disease severity, including those requiring hospitalization, outpatients with mild disease, and individuals with resolved infection. We detected SARS-CoV-2 plasma RNA in 27% of hospitalized participants, and 13% of outpatients diagnosed with COVID-19. Amongst the participants hospitalized with COVID-19, we report that a higher prevalence of detectable SARS-CoV-2 plasma viral load is associated with worse respiratory disease severity, lower absolute lymphocyte counts, and increased markers of inflammation, including C-reactive protein and IL-6. SARS-CoV-2 viral loads, especially plasma viremia, are associated with increased risk of mortality. Our data show that SARS-CoV-2 viral loads may aid in the risk stratification of patients with COVID-19, and therefore its role in disease pathogenesis should be further explored. In this study, Massachusetts Consortium for Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR) investigators assess the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and COVID-19 disease severity and report that the levels of detectable viral RNA, especially in plasma, correlates with severity of respiratory disease, inflammatory markers and predicted risk of death.

Subfields: Infectious Diseases, Modeling and Simulation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2a1f3eb9a049a1ad5975196b0a6d8cb58f296ee9