Blood samples from corona patients examined - attacks on one's own body proven
After Irish doctors linked Long COVID syndrome with increased blood clotting levels (press release reported ), an international team of researchers is now revealing a second suspected case. Autoantibodies were found significantly more frequently in seriously ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients than in non-infected people.
No end to recovery
“If you become so ill with corona that you have to go to the hospital, you are not out of the woods even after discharge,” warns Paul J. Utz, immunologist and rheumatologist at Stanford Medicine http://med.stanford.edu , the clinic at Stanford University in California. Utz's team includes Chrysanthi Skevaki, lecturer in virology and laboratory medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg http://uni-marburg.de .
The scientists examined autoantibodies in blood samples taken from 147 COVID-19 patients at three university-affiliated hospitals in March and April 2020; and in samples from 48 healthy patients who formed the control group. They were also looking for antibodies that attack the corona virus or cytokines. Cytokines are proteins that regulate the growth and differentiation of cells.
Anticytokine antibodies
Anticytokine antibodies were found in more than 60 percent of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients, compared to only 15 percent in the control group. According to the researchers, the cause could be an overreaction of the immune system triggered by a virulent, persistent infection. This in turn could lead to the cytokines no longer being able to do their job properly.
Blood samples were available from around 50 patients, taken on different days, including the day they first came to the hospital. This allowed the researchers to follow the development of the autoantibodies. “Within a week of checking into the hospital, about 20 percent of these patients had developed antibodies to their own tissue that were not there on the day they were admitted,” says Utz. “In many cases this was similar to what you see with a diagnosed autoimmune disease.” The result, like that of the Irish doctors, could help develop drugs against long COVID.
Source: pte
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