Remdesivir-Resistant Version of COVID-19 Detected in Organ Transplant Recipients

Recent studies have shown that patients with weakened immune systems—which enables the virus that causes COVID-19 to remain longer in the body, copy itself, and continually change—may enable the development of new, slightly different versions of the virus (variants). These people include those treated with drugs that suppress the immune system to keep it from rejecting a newly transplanted organ.

A new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine shows that two people with kidney transplants who were treated with immunosuppressive drugs, and who later had a lengthy COVID-19 infection, developed a version of the virus with a genetic change (mutation) that made it resistant to the antiviral therapy remdesivir. Read more from NYU Langone Health News Hub.