New discovery might help critical coronavirus patients

[Chris Smith]

• Researchers have engineered proteins that could travel the bloodstream and bind to excess cytokines in the so-called "cytokine storm" immune response that can take place with a variety of diseases.
• The discoveries were made well before the novel coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, China.
• The researchers believe their proteins could help in severe COVID-19 cases where cytokine storms can lead to death.
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Doctors treating severe COVID-19 cases observed a condition called "cytokine storm" that can occur in some patients and lead to death. These so-called storms aren't a new phenomenon, as they appear with other medical conditions as well. In simpler terms, the immune system that's supposed to fight the novel coronavirus goes haywire and ends up attacking the whole body instead of just the virus. Doctors are using some drugs to lower the immune response in these severe cases, in an attempt to save the lives of these patients. Scientists explained that balancing the immune response is a tricky thing to do. On the one hand, the immune system creates antibodies that can kill the virus and help the patient recover. On the other hand, the cytokine storm that can follow might end up killing the patient.

Rather than use existing immuno-suppressing drugs to reduce the storms, doctors may be able to use a new therapy. Scientists have developed proteins that would bind to cytokines to help avoid complications that could lead to death.

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New discovery might help critical coronavirus patients originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 17 Apr 2020 at 15:48:29 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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