The work and publications of Dr. Shapiro and his colleagues present novel contributions in the areas of sepsis, COVID-19 diagnostics, theoretical analysis of COVID-19 treatments, studies focusing on the use of corticosteroids to treat Pneumocystis pneumonia, a detailed analysis of risk factors associated with heart disease in patients infected with Trypanosoma Cruzi (Chaga Disease) and the development of a novel clinical tool that can be used to diagnose COVID-19 in the acute setting.
Underlying these contributions is a re-assessment of the role hyperinflammation in infectious diseases. This includes a careful analysis of the concept that “cytokine storm” causes disease following infections. This analysis exposes insurmountable defects in the cytokine storm paradigm and suggests this concept (that drives an abundance of research and clinical practice) is misdirected and requires replacement.
A recent publication with colleagues “ Chasing the Ghost: Hyperinformation Does Not Cause Sepis details this analysis and has garnered worldwide attention. The future direction of this project includes the completion of a radically novel approach to infectious diseases that includes a complete and consistent account of how infections cause disease. This new approach suffers none of the inconsistencies, paradoxes, and confusion associated with current approaches.
PUBLICATIONS:
Chasing the Ghost: Hyperinflammation Does Not Cause Sepsis
Leland Shapiro,Sias Scherger,Carlos Franco-Paredes, Amal A. Gharamti, David Fraulino, Andrés F. Henao-Martinez
Empiric Therapies for COVID-19: Destined to Fail by Ignoring the Lessons of History.
Canfield GS, Schultz JS, Windham S, Scherger S, Henao-Martinez AF, Shapiro L, Franco-Paredes C, Chastain DB, Wand T, Krsak M.J Hosp Med. 2020 Jul 1;15(7):434-436. doi: 10.12788/jhm.3469. Epub 2020 Jun 17. PMID: 32584243.
Preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection by blocking a tissue serine protease.
Jankousky KC, Schultz J, Windham S, Henao-Martínez AF, Franco-Paredes C, Shapiro L.Ther Adv Infect Dis. 2020 Jun 10;7:2049936120933076. doi: 10.1177/2049936120933076. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec. PMID: 32577236
Rethinking interleukin-6 blockade for treatment of COVID-19.
Scherger S, Henao-Martínez A, Franco-Paredes C, Shapiro L.Med Hypotheses. 2020 Jun 27;144:110053. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.110053. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32758889
The Importance of Understanding the Stages of COVID-19 in Treatment and Trials.
Daniel O Griffin 1, Denise Brennan-Rieder 2, Binh Ngo 3, Pierre Kory 4, Marco Confalonieri 5, Leland Shapiro 6, Jose Iglesias 7, Michael Dube 3, Neha Nanda 3, Gino K In 3, Daniel Arkfeld 3, Preet Chaudhary 3, Vito M Campese 3, Diana L Hanna 3, David Sawcer 3, Glenn Ehresmann 3, David Peng 3, Miroslaw Smorgorzewski 3, April Amstrong 3, Eivind H Vinjevoll 8, Rajkumar Dasgupta 3, Fred R Sattler 3, Cristina Mussini 9, Oriol Mitjà 10, Vicente Soriano 11, Nicolas Peschanski 12, Gilles Hayem 13, Maria Carmela Piccirillo 14, António Lobo-Ferreira 15, Iraldo B Rivero 16, Ivan F H Hung 17, Marc Rendell 18, Stephen Ditmore 19, Joseph Varon 20, Paul Marik 21. AIDS Rev. 2021. PMID: 33556957
This publication describes a novel clinical tool that can be used to diagnose COVID-19 in the acute setting and is currently undergoing peer review:
Gharamti AA, Mei F, Jankousky KC, Huang J, Hyson P, Chastain DB, Fan J, Osae S, Zhang WW, Montoya JG, Erlandson KM, Scherger SJ, Franco-Paredes C, Henao-Martínez AF, Shapiro L.medRxiv. 2020 Oct 22:2020.10.20.20216309. doi: 10.1101/2020.10.20.20216309. Preprint. PMID: 33106821
These publications focus on additional areas where Dr. Shapiro has collaborated with other investigators in studies focusing on use of corticosteroids to treat Pneumocystis pneumonia and a detailed analysis of risk factors associated with heart disease in pateints infected with Trypanosoma Cruzi (Chagas Disease):
Mundo W, Morales-Shnaider L, Tewahade S, Wagner E, Archuleta S, Bandali M, Chadalawada S, Johnson SC, Franco-Paredes C, Shapiro L, Henao-Martínez AF.Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Aug 13;7(9):ofaa354. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa354. eCollection 2020 Sep. PMID: 33005696
Chadalawada S, Sillau S, Archuleta S, Mundo W, Bandali M, Parra-Henao G, Rodriguez-Morales AJ, Villamil-Gomez WE, Suárez JA, Shapiro L, Hotez PJ, Woc-Colburn L, DeSanto K, Rassi A Jr, Franco-Paredes C, Henao-Martínez AF.JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Aug 3;3(8):e2015072. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.15072.PMID: 32865573