Mystery Finally Solved? New Discovery Could Explain Long COVID [View all]

Mystery Finally Solved? New Discovery Could Explain Long COVID

TOPICS:AntibodiesCOVID-19EnzymeImmune SystemUniversity Of Virginia

By UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEM MAY 19, 2024

https://scitechdaily.com/mystery-finally-solved-new-discovery-could-explain-long-covid/

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Researchers at UVA Health have uncovered a potential explanation for some of the most puzzling aspects of COVID-19 and long COVID. These surprising insights may pave the way for novel treatments targeting the challenging acute impacts of COVID-19, long COVID, and potentially other viruses.

Researchers led by UVA’s Steven L. Zeichner, MD, PhD, found that COVID-19 may prompt some people’s bodies to make antibodies that act like enzymes that the body naturally uses to regulate important functions – blood pressure, for example. Related enzymes also regulate other important body functions, such as blood clotting and inflammation.

Doctors may be able to target these “abzymes” to stop their unwanted effects. If abzymes with rogue activities are also responsible for some of the features of long COVID, doctors could target the abzymes to treat the difficult and sometimes mysterious symptoms of COVID-19 and long COVID at the source, instead of merely treating the downstream symptoms.

“Some patients with COVID-19 have serious symptoms and we have trouble understanding their cause. We also have a poor understanding of the causes of long COVID,” said Zeichner, a pediatric infectious disease expert at UVA Children’s. “Antibodies that act like enzymes are called ‘abzymes.’ Abzymes are not exact copies of enzymes and so they work differently, sometimes in ways that the original enzyme does not. If COVID-19 patients are making abzymes, it is possible that these rogue abzymes could harm many different aspects of physiology. If this turns out to be true, then developing treatments to deplete or block the rogue abzymes could be the most effective way to treat the complications of COVID-19.”

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Applegrove:

Someone should ask RFK Jr. if there should be more study into a treatment.