COVID-19 a type of autoimmune disease? Disturbing findings

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The coronavirus hides many secrets from us. Doctors and scientists still don’t know why some people develop severe disease, while others have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. However, researchers at Yale University found a disturbing lead. It is possible that the body is attacking itself instead of the virus. But why?

1. Yale University: Research Suggests Patients With Severe COVID-19 Produce Autoantibodies That Instead Of Fighting The Virus Destroys Their Own Immune System And Organs
2. The authors of the study point out that autoantibodies were very often observed in seriously ill patients with COVID-19
3. Scientists: the presence of autoantibodies may actually contribute to the onset of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

COVID-19 an autoimmune disease caused by the coronavirus?

Scientists are still interested in the fact how our immune system reacts to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection. It is known that the development and severity of the disease largely depends on it.

An interesting but disturbing trace was found by scientists at Yale University. Their research (yet to be published and reviewed) suggests that severe SARS-CoV-2 patients produce autoantibodies – antibodies that destroy their own immune system and organs instead of fighting off the attacking virus. Previous studies have already indicated that they are involved in the formation of dangerous clots in patients with COVID-19.

1. Day-by-day course of COVID-19. Scientists list the symptoms

Now, researchers at Yale have discovered that patients suffering from severe COVID-19 develop autoantibodies, or so-called auto-reactive antibodies that stick to those involved in recognizing, alerting, and removing coronavirus-infected cells. As a result, this leads to a blockage of the antiviral defense, which may have resulted in an increase in the infection.

Autoantibodies and its relationship with autoimmune diseases

It has also been known for years that autoantibodies are associated with autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto’s disease). Why some people develop these antibodies has yet to be answered. It is suspected to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. However, the cause of diseases of the immune system is not only an incorrect, i.e. too aggressive reaction of the immune system. They can also be affected by viral infections.

“The presence of autoantibodies suggests that COVID-19 may be an autoimmune disease caused by the coronavirus in some patients,” writes Rebecca Aicheler, lecturer in immunology at Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK).

Already at the beginning of the pandemic, scientists reported that in patients with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus who did not suffer from any autoimmune diseases, the body produced autoantibodies. It later found that in patients with severe COVID-19, autoantibodies can destroy interferons, the immune bodies that play a key role in fighting viral infections.

1. A disease that makes you twice as likely to be severely affected by COVID-19

Now, Yale researchers set out to investigate whether there are autoantibodies in the bodies of coronavirus-infected patients and whether their presence may be contributing to the most serious symptoms of COVID-19.

In severely ill COVID-19 patients, autoantibodies were very common

A team of researchers searched for autoantibodies in 170 hospitalized patients suffering from severe coronavirus infection. They then compared them to autoantibodies identified in people with mild or asymptomatic infection, as well as people not infected with SARS-CoV-2.

As it turned out? Autoantibodies that could attack interferons were present in the blood of many hospitalized patients. Moreover, there were also bodies that could interfere with the functioning of other important cells of the immune system, including NK cells and T lymphocytes. The authors of the study noted that autoantibodies were very commonly observed in seriously ill COVID-19 patients.

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The next part of the project was to establish the relationship between autoreactive antibodies and the rate of development of COVID-19. Studies on mice served this purpose. After conducting them, it was established that the presence of autoantibodies may indeed contribute to the severe course of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Scientists have found no autoantibodies specific to COVID-19.

Understanding the mechanism that ‘drives’ autoantibody production could help in the development of new treatments for COVID-19.

However, there are still unanswered questions. Scientists do not know how long these autoantibodies persist in the body after the infection is resolved. It is also unclear whether the long-term damage caused by autoantibodies could explain some of the long-term effects of coronavirus infection, the so-called “COVID-19 long tail”.

You may be interested in:

1. Where do we get infected most often? According to scientists, our homes are the fires
2. What are the risk factors for severe COVID-19?
3. The government introduces a national quarantine [CURRENT DATA]

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