It has been evident for months that the COVID in some individuals can trigger the immune system to go amok, potentially causing more harm to the body than the virus itself.
Since the pandemic started, the United States has achieved the highest regular count of novel COVID infections. During the summer, an increase across the Sun Belt, at least 82,600 reported cases, appeared and exceeded the earlier recordset.
The rise in numbers put the nation on the brink of what could have been the worse period in the pandemic so far. In the West and Midwest, several hospitals have been overwhelmed, and deaths have started to rise.
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Recent research has found that certain Covid-19 survivors bear troubling indications that their immune system has turned on their body, suggestive of potentially crippling illnesses such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The research indicates that, to some extent, in some of these patients, the body's protection mechanism changed into targeting itself, rather than the virus. Patients develop "autoantibodies" molecules that attack genetic code from human cells, rather than the virus.
The findings have been posted on the publication database of MedRxiv on Friday but have not yet been published in a scientific journal. But other experts stated that the researchers who conducted the study are renowned for their thorough, diligent work and that the results are not surprising as autoantibodies are often caused by other viral diseases.
Extreme COVID can be intensified by this misplaced immune response. It could also explain why, months after their primary illness has healed, and the infection is out from their bodies, so-called "long haulers" have lingering complications.
Infected human cells are caused to die by viral infections. Often the cells die a peaceful death; however, sometimes they may explode, splattering their innards, especially in the late stages of extreme infection. DNA, usually cloistered within the nucleus in wrapped coils, is unexpectedly dispersed and visible when that occurs.
The results have significant consequences for medication: doctors may classify patients that may benefit from treatments being used for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis through test results that can track autoantibodies. For such conditions, there is no remedy, although specific therapies minimize the occurrence and intensity of flare-ups.
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An immunologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Matthew Woodruff, stated, "It's possible that you could hit the appropriate patients harder with some of these more aggressive drugs and expect better outcomes."
If the autoantibodies prove out to be long-lasting, they could cause survivors of Covid-19 to have chronic, even lifelong complications.
"You never really cure lupus - they have flares, and they get better, and they have flares again," said Ann Marshak-Rothstein, an immunologist and lupus expert at the University of Massachusetts, Worcester. "And that may have something to do with autoantibody memory," she added.
As the USA records its second-highest day of new COVID-19 infections, the former FDA commissioner claims it is time for a nationwide mask mandate. As large gatherings keep taking place, the COVID-19 pandemic indicates no signs of slowing down in the county.
