WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A groundbreaking study published in the journal Natural has unveiled the first direct evidence that COVID-19 triggers an autoimmune response, resulting in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
This serious condition is marked by sudden and severe symptoms of multi-organ inflammation, such as fever, skin rashes, diarrhea, rapid heartbeat, and swelling in the hands and feet.
According to Adrienne Randolph, a critical care pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital and one of the study's authors, 'Every time COVID peaked in an area, about 30 days later, there'd be a peak of these kids presenting with what looked like septic shock in our network of ICUs, except they were negative for all kinds of infection.' She described this post-infectious inflammation as a perplexing phenomenon.
In their research, scientists analyzed blood samples collected from pediatric intensive care units across the United States, comparing 199 children diagnosed with MIS-C to 45 children who did not develop the syndrome after contracting COVID. Remarkably, they discovered that one-third of the MIS-C patients had autoantibodies targeting a human protein known as SNX8, which shares similarities with a segment of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein.
This autoantibody subsequently affected the T cell response, leading to confusion among immune cells due to the resemblance between the coronavirus protein and a protein present in the human body, a process referred to as molecular mimicry, as explained by Joseph DeRisi, an infectious disease expert and president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco.
While it has long been understood that infections can mislead the immune system into attacking its own body, this study is one of the first to delineate the specific events and immune players involved.
The researchers concluded that as COVID-19 transitions to an endemic phase, MIS-C cases are becoming increasingly rare, thanks to the growing immunity among children through vaccination and natural infection with SARS-CoV-2.
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