One possible explanation for long Covid
Posted: November 12th, 2022, 10:23 am
Here is a video that I found interesting discussing one possible mechanism underlying long Covid supported by various studies (I’m not sure on the peer-reviewed vs preprint status of those various studies). It’s quite technical and I don’t pretend to understand all of it but the basic thrust of it certainly seems to make sense and is quite disturbing - https://youtu.be/P8Tu_Qv8ECQ
As I understand it the basic idea is that after an infection (or vaccination, I hope I don’t stir up any antivax hornets’ nest) antibodies against the spike protein, in particular against the receptor binding motif (RBM) of the spike which is the bit of the spike where the actual binding to the ACE2 receptor happens are produced which is of course expected and part of the expected immune response and of the vaccines. In some cases however the body can also develop antibodies against those RBM-targeting antibodies. The problem with that is that because of the symmetry of the situation those antibody antibodies (called “anti ACE2 antibodies” in the video) can also bind directly to ACE-2 receptors of the host cells in a similar way to how SARS-CoV-2 spike itself binds to ACE2 receptors and that can have all sorts of effects that are gone into in some detail in the video and certainly seem to mirror many reported symptoms of long Covid. The fact that the entities doing the damage are antibodies that the body can produce more of after an infection is cleared rather than the spike protein itself that should be cleared after an infection also seems to explain the long/residual nature of long Covid.
For those with an interest and who might unfortunately be suffering from long Covid the video does in the first couple of minutes namecheck a company in Germany that offers a test for anti ACE2 antibodies although I’m not sure if that test is only available to medical professionals. It is not 100% clear to me what can then be done with the test results but perhaps some people might at least be interested in knowing whether they might be in this situation if indeed the test is available to the general public.
- Julian
As I understand it the basic idea is that after an infection (or vaccination, I hope I don’t stir up any antivax hornets’ nest) antibodies against the spike protein, in particular against the receptor binding motif (RBM) of the spike which is the bit of the spike where the actual binding to the ACE2 receptor happens are produced which is of course expected and part of the expected immune response and of the vaccines. In some cases however the body can also develop antibodies against those RBM-targeting antibodies. The problem with that is that because of the symmetry of the situation those antibody antibodies (called “anti ACE2 antibodies” in the video) can also bind directly to ACE-2 receptors of the host cells in a similar way to how SARS-CoV-2 spike itself binds to ACE2 receptors and that can have all sorts of effects that are gone into in some detail in the video and certainly seem to mirror many reported symptoms of long Covid. The fact that the entities doing the damage are antibodies that the body can produce more of after an infection is cleared rather than the spike protein itself that should be cleared after an infection also seems to explain the long/residual nature of long Covid.
For those with an interest and who might unfortunately be suffering from long Covid the video does in the first couple of minutes namecheck a company in Germany that offers a test for anti ACE2 antibodies although I’m not sure if that test is only available to medical professionals. It is not 100% clear to me what can then be done with the test results but perhaps some people might at least be interested in knowing whether they might be in this situation if indeed the test is available to the general public.
- Julian