Covid, the mechanism that contributes to worsening the outcome of the disease has been discovered

The development of autoantibodies, the prevalence of which increases beyond the age of 60, favored by Sars-CoV-2, contributes to worsening the outcome of Covid-19 disease. Two studies published in Science Immunology by an International Consortium of Researchers, coordinated by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (Niaid), from the Rockefeller University (New York) and from University of Paris, to which theUniversity of Milan-Bicocca and theSan Gerardo Hospital of Monza. From the first months of the pandemic in 2020, the project “Storm-Covid-19” (Observational study on the natural history of patients hospitalized for Sars-CoV-2) to collect an electronic archive of clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic data of Covid-19 patients admitted to the Monza Hospital.

The two studies showed that those with autoantibodies that neutralize T lymphocytes (cells of the immune system that defend against the virus) tend to develop severe forms of the disease.

According to the researchers, “The SARS-CoV-2 acts as a superantigen and by mechanisms, largely unknown, it induces the production of autoantibodies, responsible for the damage of the disease and active against proteins (interferons) that protect us from infection. In general, autoimmune diseases increase with age and this may explain the correlation between increases in anti-interferon autoantibodies in patients in relation to age and disease severity. The early treatment with monoclonal antibodies could be administered to these patients before symptoms of Covid pneumonia appear – 19. Our Storm-Covid-19 project, launched in March 2020 with the approval of the Ethics Committee of theIRCCS Spallanzani of Rome, provided for the collection of residual biological material of patients, made anonymous. This allowed us to participate in two large international research consortia against Covid-19: that of National Institutes of Health di Bethesda (United States) and the European one, Covid-19 Host Genetics Institute in which the Milan Polyclinic e Humanitas Institute and make data available on the REDCap platform, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).