California scientists discover autoantibodies could be why some develop severe COVID-19 complications and others don't.
SAN FRANCISCO -- More than two years into the pandemic, scientists discovered a key aspect that could decipher why some people are more prone to getting severely ill from COVID than others.
"There are people walking around with vulnerabilities to COVID and they don't even know it," said Dr. Joe DeRisi, President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco. Researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub tested close to 4,000 San Franciscans and noticed that even though many did not have pre-existing health conditions their bodies were highly vulnerable."We were able to replicate and show that around .3 percent of the population actually have this autoantibody," said Dr. DeRisi."However, if you look at the severe COVID patients or critical COVID patients in the hospital it's as much as 20 percent.
They processed thousands of blood tests and discovered that a subset of the population has autoantibodies that compromise their ability to fight the virus. "What is fascinating about these discoveries is that these autoantibodies, these antibodies against yourself uniquely attack the part of the immune system that is responsible for the first line of defense against viruses which likely explains why people who have these antibodies are susceptible to severe or critical COVID," said Dr. DeRisi.