Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

A report featured work by UB researchers on a national study of a medication to protect the health of people who come in close contact with someone with COVID-19. The story quotes Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. “Most people who develop COVID after an exposure will develop it within seven days, usually, but we’ll follow people and see what happens with them,” said Sethi. “They are doing periodic looks at the data to see if there is a strong signal of benefit.”

A story reports that UB research played a part in the FDA’s approval of Remdesivir to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The story quotes Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. “I think we have the confidence, that we had the right kind of data with this drug to use it, and that's where the FDA approved it,” Sethi said.

Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is part of a research team now looking at melatonin as a possible treatment for those with mild cases of COVID-19. Sethi says the idea was brought to his attention by his colleague and leader of the research team, Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of pharmacology and toxicology and senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion. “It cuts down on inflammation,” says Sethi. During this first trial, the team will research whether using higher dosages is safe to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases. 

An article reports Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences researchers have launched a clinical trial to test if melatonin can be used to treat COVID-19. Led by Sanjay Sethi, MD, director of UB’s Clinical Research Office and deputy director of the university’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, UB’s randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot clinical trial testing melatonin actually is one of a very few worldwide to look at this common over-the-counter supplement,” according to the article. The article also noted the trial itself will be led by Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of pharmacology and toxicology.

Researchers have launched a clinical trial to test if melatonin can be used to treat COVID-19. “Current proven treatments for COVID-19 are for patients severe enough to be hospitalized,” says Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. “It would be a major advance to have a treatment that is effective in milder disease.” The clinical trial on the use of melatonin and COVID-19 is one of the few being conducted around the world, and it is the only one in New York State.

The Buffalo News ran a front page story about two nurses who became infected with COVID-19 and who participated in the UB-Roswell Park clinical trial on convalescent plasma, a blood component taken from those who have recovered from the disease and then administered to patients sick with the disease to see if antibodies in the plasma can improve outcomes. The article quotes Manoj J. Mammen, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, who is directing the convalescent plasma effort at Buffalo General Medical Center, and Joseph L. Izzo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, who is directing the effort at Erie County Medical Center. Both efforts are part of the Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Expanded Access Program.

Emergency medicine researchers — including Brian Clemency, DO — have launched a study to see if a steroid medication typically used to treat asthma can help patients with COVID-19. “Some people with viruses or other illnesses feel better sooner, faster with these kinds of medicines, so our hope in this case is that it will be helpful too,” says Clemency, associate professor of emergency medicine. Sanjay Sethi, MD — professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine — helped Clemency set up the study in the region.

There is some excitement among doctors treating COVID-19 because new medical research has found that a corticosteroid called dexamethasone can be used to treat patients who are breathing through a ventilator. Researchers working out of Oxford University say the drug reduced deaths by up to one-third for those with respiratory problems from the virus. “Is it grade A evidence? No. But is it grade B evidence? Yes. So we are kind of excited that we have two choices now," says Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. He notes that this is not a major cure but may become a leading drug in the COVID-19 war, along with the antiviral remdesivir.

Manoj J. Mammen, MD, associate professor of medicine and a critical care physician at Buffalo General Medical Center, is quoted in an article about an effort among WNY hospitals to use antibodies to treat some COVID-19 patients.

Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, is quoted in a story on the search for answers to the confounding mysteries still surrounding COVID-19. “It’s the biggest we've ever seen, at least in my career, this state of unknown,” said Sethi.

Researchers — including Sanjay Sethi, MD; Ruogang Zhao, PhD; Albert H. Titus, PhD; and Chi Zhou, PhD — are developing a system that has the potential to turn resuscitators into devices that, like mechanical ventilators, help patients breathe without the assistance of another person. Sethi is a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; Zhao is an associate professor of biomedical engineering; Titus is a professor and chair of biomedical engineering; and Zhou is an associate professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has launched the local program of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project. Researchers put out the call for people who have recovered from COVID-19. Experts believe if plasma from these survivors is administered to a currently infected person, these antibodies could help aid in recovery. “Those antibodies can hopefully control the virus, and those are in the plasma, so before we had antibiotics these things were tried and succeeded in certain situations,” says Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. Sethi is coordinating the program with Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and director of UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

A story on a program in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to treat COVID-19 patients with the plasma of those who have recovered from the disease said that UB has received interest from more than 300 potential donors. The story quotes Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, who said that the treatment will take some time before it’s known if it is effective in patients.

The state health department has been testing people for COVID-19 to get a better picture of how many people have been infected by the virus. “This is a challenging time, but then you have to step up to the challenge, and that’s what we’ve been trying to do,” says Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. Sethi explains that antibodies found in the blood are the natural way our bodies fight the virus. “They’re supposed to neutralize or kill the virus, so that’s the normal response or the way the body deals with an infection, and theoretically those antibodies should be able to protect you or prevent reinfection,” he says.

Jamie N. Nadler, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and a Buffalo General Medical Center critical care physician, is quoted in a story on experimental treatments for COVID-19. Some experimental treatments will start with critically ill patients until doctors know more about their effectiveness. “If we’re finding them successful, then we want to start rolling them out to more moderately ill patients to prevent their decline sooner,” Nadler said.