Covid’s doctors follow the path of DNA and have the potential for immunotherapy

Their doctors were confused when three siblings became seriously ill with Covid-19 at the same time. Both were young, 29 and 31 years old and healthy. But within a few days they couldn’t breathe on their own, and tragically one of them died.

Two weeks later, a geneticist was called in to investigate when a second brother in his twenties, who was attacked by Covid, also appeared in the Netherlands. What they revealed was the path that followed from a serious incident. Genetic variation, And gender differences in immune function loss may ultimately create new approaches for treating thousands of coronavirus patients.

A common thread of research is the lack of a substance called interferon It helps regulate the body’s defenses against viral pathogens and can be infused to treat conditions such as infectious hepatitis. Now increasing evidence Some Covid-19 patients With a disability Interferon reaction. A groundbreaking study published Thursday in Science magazine insufficient Interferon may be at a dangerous turning point in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

“There seems to be one big trick with this virus.” Shane Croty, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Research Center, Institute of Immunology, La Jolla, California. “The big trick is to avoid the first innate immune response for quite some time, especially the early type 1 interferon response.”

Work emphasizes interferon-based potential Therapy Expands the range of slowly accumulating Covid-19 treatments. These include Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir and convalescent plasma. This is a component of the recovered patient’s blood that may contain beneficial immune factors.

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These treatments offer limited benefits and are usually used for patients who are hospitalized with very illness. of possibility Interferon seems to be most effective in the early stages of infection, which can prevent life-threatening respiratory failure, and may help some people to seduce. Dozens of studies on interferon treatment are currently underway Recruitment Covid-19 patients.

“We believe that timing is essential because it is so early that it can actually fight virus particles and protect them from infection,” he said. Alexander HoischenHead of the Genome Technology and Immunogenomics Group at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, which analyzes the DNA of two siblings.

Being male, being elderly, and having an underlying illness can all increase the risk of life-threatening Covid-19 patients. However, even within these groups, the severity of the disease varies greatly. Scientists speculate that other factors, such as existing levels of inflammation and immunity, the amount of virus that initiates infection, and the patient’s condition, affect susceptibility. Gene composition..

The role of interferon represents a new link in the complex interaction of Covid-19 with the human immune system. Many patients suffer from the worst complications due to an immune hyperreactivity, sometimes referred to as cytokine storms, and may benefit from the cheap generic dexamethasone that calms these storms.

Read more: Where is the quest for Covid treatment?

“It’s a very interesting disease because it’s not good to have too little immunity,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on September 10. online Information session for Massachusetts General Hospital staff. “If your immunity is too high, it’s really, really bad.”

Some people are known to have problems fighting infection because they make antibodies that inactivate their interferon. On Thursday, a global consortium of researchers said such an immune response to proteins could cause life-threatening Covid-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% ​​of men. ..

According to a Science study, interferon-blocking antibodies appeared in 101 of 987 patients with severe illness, but not in 663 asymptomatic or mild cases. According to a group of more than 100 scientists, patients over the age of 65 were more likely to develop autoimmune disorders than younger patients and were “clinically asymptomatic until they became infected with SARS-CoV-2.”