Researchers led by AVC Steven L. Zeichner, MD, PhD, have found that COVID-19 could cause some people’s bodies to produce antibodies that act as enzymes that the body naturally uses for vital purposes, such as blood pressure, for example. Enzymes also serve other vital physical purposes, such as blood clotting and inflammation.
Doctors could possibly target those “abszymes” to prevent their side effects. If abzimas with malicious activities are also to blame for some features of long COVID, doctors may also target abzimas to treat the complicated and mysterious symptoms of COVID-19 and long COVID at the source, rather than simply treating the symptoms afterward.
“Some COVID-19 patients have severe symptoms and we have a hard time perceiving the cause. We also have a poor perception of the reasons for long COVID,” said Zeichner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UVA Children’s Hospital. “Antibodies that act like enzymes are called ‘abzymes. ‘ Abzymes are not exact copies of enzymes and therefore act differently, often in a way that the original enzyme does not. If COVID-19 patients produce abzimas, it is conceivable that those malicious abzimas could harm many others. facets of physiology. It turns out to be true, so finding remedies to deplete or block unwanted abzimas could be the most effective way to treat complications from COVID-19. “
Understanding the abzymes of COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has a protein on its surface called the spike protein. When the virus begins to infect a cell, the spike protein binds to a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2, on the surface of the cell. The overall function of ACE2 in the framework is to help blood pressure; It cuts a protein called angiotensin II to produce a derived protein called angiotensin 1-7. Angiotensin II constricts blood vessels, thereby expanding blood pressure, while angiotensin 1 to 7 relaxes blood vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure.
Zeichner and his team figured that some patients might be able to produce antibodies opposed to the spike protein that resembled ACE2 enough that the antibodies also had enzymatic activity like ACE2, and that’s precisely what they found.
Recently, other teams have discovered that some long COVID patients have disorders with their clotting formula and some other formula called a “supplement. “The coagulation formula and supplement formula are controlled through enzymes in the frame that cut other proteins to activate them. . If long COVID patients produce abzymes that activate proteins that control processes such as clotting and inflammation, this may also be the source of some of the symptoms of long COVID and why long COVID symptoms persist even after the framework has cleared the initial infection. It could also be the rare side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
To find out if antibodies can have unintended effects on COVID patients, Zeichner and his colleagues analyzed plasma samples collected from 67 volunteers with moderate or severe COVID on or about day 7 of their hospitalization. The researchers compared what they discovered to plasma collected in 2018. , before the pandemic began. The effects showed that a small subset of COVID patients possessed antibodies that acted like enzymes.
While our understanding of the possible role of abzymas in COVID-19 is still in its infancy, enzymatic antibodies have already been detected in some HIV cases, Zeichner notes. This means that there is a precedent in which a virus triggers the formation of abzymes. It also suggests that other viruses may simply cause effects.
Zeichner, who is developing a universal vaccine against the coronavirus, hopes that new UVA discoveries will rekindle interest in abzymas in medical research. He also hopes his discovery will lead to better remedies for patients with acute and long COVID-19.
“We now want to examine natural versions of antibodies with enzyme activity to see in more detail how abzymes may work, and we want to examine patients who have had COVID-19, who may or may not have evolved for a long time,” he said. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but I believe we are at a good start to achieving a new understanding of this complicated disease that has caused so much misery and death around the world. The first step towards finding new and effective remedies for a disease. We expanded an intelligent understanding of the underlying reasons for the disease and have taken this first step. “
Published results
The researchers published their findings in the clinical journal mBio, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The study team consisted of Yufeng Song, Regan Myers, Frances Mehl, Lila Murphy, Bailey Brooks and members of the Department of Medicine, Jeffrey M. . Wilson, Alexandra Kadl and Judith Woodfolk.
“It’s wonderful to have such committed colleagues here at AVC who are excited to work on new and unconventional studio projects,” Zeichner said.
Zeichner is the McClemore Birdsong Professor in the departments of pediatrics and microbiology, immunology, and cancer biology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine; the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Pendleton; and is from the UVA Child Health Research Center.
Abzyme’s studies have been conducted through the AVC, adding the Manning Fund for COVID-19 research at the AVC; the Ivy Foundation; the Pendleton Laboratory Fund for Pediatric Infectious Disease Research; a College Council Minerva Research Grant; the Coulter Foundation; and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, award R01 grant AI176515. More came from the HHV-6 Foundation.
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Equipment provided through the University of Virginia Health System. Note: Content can be edited in terms of taste and length.
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