Flawed interferon response spurs severe COVID-19

[Tom.G]

from: Science magazine:

"...in a significant minority of patients with serious COVID-19, the interferon response has been crippled by genetic flaws or by rogue antibodies that attack interferon itself.

And appears to be related to a flawed X chromosome that creates antibodies to type I interferons, which helps explain why males are more likely to be severely ill.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6511/1550
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6511/1550/tab-pdf

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Wow, this is fascinating! So it appears that there are some genetic factors at play in why males are more likely to be severely ill from COVID-19. This could have huge implications for understanding the pandemic and how to treat it. It's great to see research like this being done to understand the virus better. Thanks for sharing, Tom!