COVID-19 Infection Identified to Trigger Aggressive Antibodies

Experts revealed in a new study that an infection carried by patients upon contracting the coronavirus could possibly trigger an immune response that could protect the overall body system even after the expected span of time.

However, the capacity of this protection ever after recovery and initial infection exceeds the job it is supposed to manage, attacking not just the infecting virus, but the own organs of a body. The said reaction was observed even from groups who had mild to no symptoms of COVID-19. The study was made possible through the efforts of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and supporting institutes.

COVID-19 and Antobodies

(Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Phlebotomist Briana Green draws blood from Maritza Nieves during the new FDA emergency use and authorized IgG ll Antibody Test for vaccinated people, offered free of charge in Santa Fe Springs, California, on April 21, 2021. - The testing site is put together by the local city council and GUARDaHEART Foundation. The new IgG ll antibody test is the most sensitive and specific to date, offering insights even to those who have had their second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

People who are influenced by the effects of the virus and other types of pathogens normally have their bodies trigger certain biological reactions. Among the common response found in the human body upon contracting these issues is the production of a protein type called antibodies.

Antibodies manifest on a system to process their main function, including the detection of foreign substances that infiltrated the body and protection of the cells from being invaded. Although the absence of the antibodies risks the overall safety of all the functions inside humans, too much of their presence could hurt people. In some cases, patients suffer from the harmful side-effects triggered by autoantibodies, which have the capability to fight off the organs and tissues they are housed inside the same body.

The numerous detection of autoantibodies was observed through the efforts of LA-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In the study, experts found that self-attacking antibodies are prevalent in the system of patients who contracted the coronavirus. The aggressive immune response was determined to settle in patients for at least 6 months following their full recovery.

Before the completion of the study, the scientific community was already aware that there were many cases of COVID-19 in which the disease agitates the immune system in a more extreme approach than other illnesses. Because of the stress incurred, the immune system unwantedly produces autoantibodies that could complicate any of the collective organs of a body.

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Autoantibodies: Self-Attacking Protection

The latest research presents a perspective of autoantibodies not just in patients with mild or asymptomatic confirmation, but also with the persistence of the condition through the span of the pandemic.

Smidt Heart Institute' Department of Cardiology expert and co-author of the study Justyna Fert-Bober said in a EurekAlert report that the information gathered from the study reinforces the fact that COVID-19 is a unique type of disease. The expert added that the patterns recorded from the correlation between COVID-19 contraction and problematic immune response could help further studies to explain why there are patients of the coronavirus that are being hit by the persistent symptoms

The findings in the research were analyzed through the data collected from 177 participants who were confirmed to have COVID-19 in the past. The information extracted from the subjects included blood samples, which were compared side by side with samples from individuals who managed to stay healthy amidst the pandemic.

Smidt Heart Institute's Institute for Research on Healthy Aging director and co-author Susan Cheng explained that their team found corresponding signals on the autoantibody reaction pointing to conditions such as chronic inflammation, nervous system, and tissue problems, as well as organ failure. In the study, the condition typically manifests in women more than in men.

The authors are willing to expand the study to allow the discovery of more substantial hints over the self-attacking antibodies in other setups of COVID-19 implications such as coronavirus breakthrough detection. The study was published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, titled "Paradoxical sex-specific patterns of autoantibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection."