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Some severe cases of Covid-19, even in young patients without underlying disease who are intubated in hospital ICUs, are due to a malfunction of certain proteins (type 1 interferons), according to two new international scientific studies, conducted in people with severe disease. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The two new studies, led by infectious disease specialist and geneticist Dr. Jean-Laurent Casanova of Rockefeller University in New York and involving Greek-born diaspora scientists, published in the leading scientific journal “Science,” are part of Gen Esfuerza and completes important pieces in the Covid-19 “puzzle”. They shed light on why the new virus is deadly for some people and provide the first molecular explanation for why men are at higher risk than women.
The discovery that in a minority of patients with Covid-19 (around 14%) the proper functioning of protective interferons is blocked, may in the future save lives with appropriate therapy with synthetic interferon, which will restore the function of these proteins protective. . It will also help to diagnose early those who are most at risk of serious illness from Covid-19.
Type 1 interferons are a group of 17 proteins produced directly by infected cells, before the immune system is normally activated, to limit the spread of the “invader.” They play a vital role in defending the body against influenza and other viruses. But when they are produced at insufficient levels for genetic reasons or when their function is sabotaged by the body itself through autoantibodies, then the body’s defenses are unable to fight the coronavirus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors suspected something was wrong and have now confirmed it.
In the first study, researchers analyzed the DNA of 659 patients with severe pneumonia due to Covid-19 and 530 asymptomatic. They found that 3.5% of severe Covid-19 patients had rare genetic mutations in a total of eight genes that prevented their bodies from making adequate interferons. The genetic background prevents these people’s immune cells from producing type 1 interferons in response to the coronavirus.
“The findings provide reliable evidence that type 1 interferon disorder is often the life-threatening cause of Covid-19,” said Casanova, head of the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetic Infectious Diseases at Rockefeller. COVID human genetic strain.
In the second study, scientists looked at 987 patients with severe Covid-19 antibodies that, for some unknown reason, are directed against tissues and organs in the body. In 10.2% of patients, these autoantibodies were found to target the function of type 1 interferons, compared with only 0.3% in the general population.
These antibodies act like a boomerang, preventing interferons from doing their defensive job against the coronavirus. “The findings strongly suggest that these autoantibodies, and not the Covid-19 infection itself, are in fact the underlying cause of some people becoming seriously ill,” said Dr. Casanova.
It is noteworthy that in the vast majority (95%) these neutralizing autoantibodies were found in men, which partly explains why they have a much higher risk than women of dying from the coronavirus. This is a surprise to scientists, because women are more prone to autoimmune diseases. Additionally, half of the severe Covid-19 patients who produce autoantibodies are over 65 years of age, which helps explain why older people are more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The findings, according to Science, also raise a concern: that self-destructive autoantibodies may also be present in the blood plasma of patients administered to patients. That is why proper monitoring must be performed before transfusion. Finally, the researchers noted that there was a need to develop new tests that would quickly detect such autoantibodies.
Links to scientific publications here and here
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
