Coronavirus: Multiple autoantibodies are associated with severe and prolonged Covid-19



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The dramatically increased levels of “friendly fire” received by a patient’s immune system, which are reflected in the autoantibodies you think may, to a great extent, explain your severe symptoms COVID-19 as well as its long duration in some people, long after the virus escapes from their body, according to a new American scientific study.

Your researchers Yale University, Led by Immunobiology Professors Akiko Iwasaki and Aaron Ring, who did the relevant pre-publication on medRxiv (which is not yet a regular publication in a scientific journal), they studied 194 Covid-19 patients and found significantly elevated levels of autoantibodies. becomes a “boomerang” against organs and tissues), compared to 30 healthy people who were not infected with SARS-CoV-2.

As the disease progresses in some patients, the autoantibodies tend to increase. The result is that the defense against the coronavirus is disoriented, since the autoantibodies, instead of inactivating the coronavirus proteins, turn against the proteins of the human body. It was found that the more autoantibodies the patients had in their blood, the more difficult it was to fight the virus and thus the more severe Covid-19. Indicatively, patients with coronavirus it had more self-destructive autoantibodies even than people with autoimmune lupus erythematosus.

In some cases, coronavirus patients were found whose autoantibodies attacked B cells (the cellular “factories” for producing antibodies) or guard cells. T lymphocytes. Researchers estimate that the more different types of autoantibodies appear in a patient, the worse their symptoms and the greater the risk of death.

As Yale’s Dr. Ring told The Guardian, the harmful effects of autoantibodies can continue after the infection is gone, leaving patients with various health problems for a long time.

“Because autoantibodies can persist for a long time, it is possible that they contribute to the development of prolonged Covid-19. Post-Covid syndromes can reasonably be caused by long-lasting autoantibodies, which persist long after the coronavirus has left the body. “If that’s the case, then there are immunosuppressive therapies, like those for rheumatic diseases, that could be effective.”

Scientists have known for many years that autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis (multiple sclerosis) are due to a malfunction of the immune system that attacks your own body. Little is known about viral infections and whether they can cause a similar self-destructive reaction. Research is underway to investigate the extent to which autoantibodies are responsible for long-term symptoms in diseases such as those caused by the Ebola and Tsikungunya viruses or in cancer patients afterward. immunotherapy.

Long-acting Covid-19, with symptoms lasting for months, is estimated to occur in approximately 10% of patients aged 18 to 49, with an increase in frequency of approximately 20% in those over 70 .

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