A supercomputer analyzes the coronavirus and the result is a revolutionary potential: a new theory about how it invades our body and possible new treatments | News, Foreign News | Freedom

09/03/2020 Health, Romania, World

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In early summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee analyzed 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand how the coronavirus works.

Summit is the second fastest computer in the world, but even so, it took more than a week to analyze all 2.5 million genetic combinations.

A supercomputer has analyzed the coronavirus, and the result is potentially revolutionary: a new theory of how it invades our body and new possible treatments — Summit computer

When the researchers saw the results, they had a moment of revelation. An “evrika moment”, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, head of the research project.

The computer has virtually revealed a new theory about how COVID-19 affects the body, a theory that researchers have called the “Bradykinin Hypothesis.” The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of the disease, including some more bizarre symptoms. It also suggests at least ten potential treatments, many of which have already been approved by US medical authorities for other conditions.

The results were published in July in the specialized magazine eLife.

Like a thief who breaks into the house and then opens all the doors

According to the research, the infection generated by the new coronavirus enters the body through the ACE-2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme) receptors in the nose. The virus then reaches the rest of the body, to the cells of other organs that have ACE-2 receptors: intestines, kidneys and heart.

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This explains, among other things, some heart or gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19.

Once the virus has settled in the body, it no longer only infects cells that have high levels of ACE-2 receptors.

Instead, it takes control and regulates the level of these receptors in the organs where they are present at a low or medium level, even in the lungs, for example.

What is a bradykinin storm?

Researchers have noticed something else. The body’s renin-angiotensin system (ARS) controls many aspects of the circulatory system, including the level of bradykinin, a chemical that helps regulate blood pressure.

Coronavirus in Romania, August 31 | The total number of cases is close to 87,000 and the number of deaths to 3,600. — The infection generated by the new coronavirus enters the body through the ECA-2 receptors in the nose PHOTO: Hepta

According to the analysis, when the virus changes the ARS, it makes the regulatory mechanisms of bradykinin unsafe.

Specifically, the virus triggers a so-called “bradykinin storm,” an increase in the level of this chemical in the body. Based on the hypothesis developed from supercomputer data, this storm is ultimately responsible for many of the fatal effects of COVID-19.

Daniel Jacobson’s team wrote in the research that “COVID-19 pathology is more likely to be the result of a bradykinin storm than a cytokine storm,” which was previously identified in the body of COVID patients.

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The effects of the bradykinin storm

As bradykinin levels rise in the body, the substance causes increased vascular permeability. In other words, the blood vessels begin to leak.

This finding confirms recent clinical data, which considers Covid-19 a vascular disease rather than a respiratory disease, although the virus has a very strong effect on the lungs.

As the blood vessels begin to leak as a result of the bradykinin storm, researchers say the lungs can fill with fluid.

Immune cells also leak into the lungs and cause inflammation.

COVID-19 has another trick. Otherwise, the virus increases the production of hyaluronic acid in the lungs.

Hyaluronic acid is often used in soaps or creams for its ability to absorb a quantity of liquid 1000 times greater than its weight.

When combined with fluid leaks, the results are disastrous: it forms a hydrogel that simply fills the lungs of patients. In the words of Dr. Jacobson, “it’s like breathing through jelly.”

This could explain why ventilators have been shown to be less effective in treating COVID cases than doctors expected, based on experience with other coronaviruses.

You get to a point where it doesn’t matter how much oxygen you pump, it doesn’t matter anymore, because the lung alveoli are filled with this hydrogel.

Dr. Daniel Jacobson, head of the research project:

“The lungs now look like a water balloon,” he says. Patients can suffocate even on mechanical ventilation.

How to Explain the Symptoms of COVID

The bradykinin hypothesis also explains the effects of COVID-19 on the heart. One in five hospitalized patients with infection has heart effects, even if they have not had heart problems before.

Some of these effects are due to the fact that the virus directly infects the heart through ECA2 receptors.

But it is also the renin-angiotensin system that controls aspects of heart contractions and blood pressure, but which is now altered by the coronavirus. Specifically, according to the researchers, the bradykinin storm could cause arrhythmia and low blood pressure.

The bradykinin hypothesis also seems to explain the neurological effects, the most surprising aspects of the disease. These symptoms (which include dizziness, seizures, delirium, and stroke) are present in half of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

According to Jacobson’s team, MRI scans performed in France found that many COVID-19 patients had blood vessel leaks in the brain.

VIDEO Unprecedented number of deaths caused by COVID in Romania in the last 24 hours: 60. The number of patients in ATI has also increased dramatically — The new hypothesis explains many of the symptoms of COVID among patients PHOTO: EPA

Bradykinin, especially in high doses, can cause the opening of the blood-brain barrier.

Normally, it acts as a filter between the blood system and the central nervous system. It allows access to the nutrients the brain needs to function, while keeping toxins and pathogens at bay, while maintaining the regular internal environment of the brain.

If the bradykinin storm causes this barrier to open, then some harmful cells and components could enter the brain and cause inflammation and other conditions – many of the neurological symptoms that COVID patients develop.

It is reasonable to assume that many of the neurological symptoms of Covid-19 could be due to excess bradykinin. Bradykinin has been shown to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. Furthermore, similar neurological symptoms have been observed in other diseases resulting from excess bradykinin.

Dr. Daniel Jacobson, head of the research project:

High levels of bradykinin can be responsible for other common symptoms of the disease.

ACE inhibitors, a series of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, have an effect on the renin-angiotensin system similar to that of COVID-19. Jacobson even pointed out in his analysis that the virus behaves like an ACE inhibitor.

Therefore, many COVID patients have symptoms similar to those taking hypertension medications: dry cough and fatigue. ACE inhibitors can also cause an increase in blood potassium levels, another parameter seen in some COVID patients.

Although it is just an emerging theory, the bradykinin hypothesis appears to explain other rarer symptoms of COVID-19.

Jacobson’s team speculates that leaking blood vessels caused by the bradykinin storm may be responsible for “COVID finger,” a condition seen in some patients who have swollen and injured fingers.

Bradykinin can also be responsible for thyroid disorder.

We have possible treatments

The hypothesis developed from analysis by the Summit supercomputer and Dr. Jacobson’s team also suggests new treatments for COVID.

According to research, several drugs regulate certain aspects of the renin-angiotensin system, the one regulated by COVID, and are already approved by medical authorities to treat other conditions. They could also be used to treat COVID.

Another potentially beneficial drug is danazol, used to treat endometriosis, which has the function of reducing bradykinin production.

Other medications can reduce the effects of bradykinin.

Dr. Jacobson’s team suggests that vitamin D is also a potential drug for COVID. Its effect would be to stop the formation of a bradykinin storm.

Other medications can treat the symptoms associated with bradykinin storm.

The active substance Himecromon, for example, sold under various names around the world, could reduce the level of hyaluronic acid and could stop the formation of hydrogel in the lungs.

It should be noted that all of these treatments are obviously speculative and must first be rigorously studied in clinical trials before they can be approved for widespread use.