Why do some people have to be hospitalized for a coronavirus infection and why does it express itself like a mild cold in others?
Researchers find a possible answer.
In autumn 2020, many countries are seeing rising Covid 19 cases again.
Worrying: In some patients, coronavirus infection results in severe symptoms *.
But for many the disease is relatively easy.
After flu-like symptoms that persist for a few days, many patients report recovery.
But how is it that Covid-19 is harmless for some people and others have to be ventilated
?
A new study got to the bottom of this question.
When coronaviruses enter the body, the body initiates an immune response that results in the production of antibodies.
Ideally, the viruses are rendered harmless within a short period of time.
But this does not always succeed. In the case of severe Covid-19 courses, doctors observed so-called cytokine storms *: a dangerous overreaction of the body's own defenses.
And so-called auto-reactive antibodies are also worrying medical professionals because they are directed against the body's own tissue.
In previous studies, such harmful proteins were found in blood clots in severe Covid-19 cases in the intensive care unit.
Matthew Woodruff, a lecturer at the Center for Human Immunology at Emory University in the United States, not only examined the development of Covid-19 antibodies more closely - he and his team also examined the role of antibodies that are directed against healthy, endogenous tissue .
The researchers also detected such autoantibodies in seriously ill Covid-19 patients, which begs the question: Could an
autoimmune reaction
- as it occurs in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis - be the reason for serious coronavirus disease courses?
Also read
: This is what happens with a coronavirus infection in the body.
Autoimmune reaction as a trigger for severe corona courses?
Woodruff and his team conclude from their newly published study: Severe Covid-19 infections are associated with the production of autoantibodies.
For their study, the researchers analyzed the data from 52 Covid-19 patients who had to be treated in the intensive care unit, none of the patients suffering or having suffered from an autoimmune disease.
Even so, more than half of the 52 patients tested positive for autoantibodies.
In patients with the highest levels of c-reactive protein in their blood (a marker of inflammation), more than two-thirds showed signs that their immune system was producing antibodies that attack their own tissues, according to the Sciencealert.com portal.
"It is important that we believe that the autoreactive reactions that we have identified here are specific to the Sars-CoV-2 infection," Woodruff of Sciencealert.com is quoted as saying.
However, the researchers cannot deduce from their study to what extent the autoantibodies actually influence the severity of the symptoms.
It could be that a serious viral disease generally leads to the production of autoantibodies without this having any consequences.
Further studies must therefore be carried out to determine whether the treatment of the most severe courses of Covid-19 with dexamethasone (an immunosuppressant that is used to suppress autoimmune diseases) could be effective
.
(jg)
*
Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network
.
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