Covid, Novelli: "Interferon is the key"3 Jan 2023 11:03
Covid, Novelli: "Interferon is the key" - January 2, 2023
The geneticist: "There are many more genes involved in the body's response than expected"
The key to Covid? It's the interferon.
“By now – explains Giuseppe Novelli, geneticist of the Tor Vergata University of Rome – the consensus is unanimous: resistance to Covid and the severity of the disease have to do with innate immunity and above all with the correct production of interferon ”.
And since "the genes that produce or activate interferon are many ", even the specific ones that intervene in the response of the immune system to the attack of Sars-CoV-2 "are many more than we expected, because it is of a complex virus”, admits Novelli, announcing that in the coming months the world of research “will come out on the subjectvery important new articles , on which we are working”.
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Interferon and Covid
As the geneticist points out, the first move of the organism, when it is faced with an external pathogenic agent, is the production of molecules similar to interferon.
“It is the first necessary alarm bell – he explains – which activates a chain that we know well and which we have also found to be fundamental in the response to Covid ”.
The role of interferon also explains, for example, why the disease often manifests itself more severely in the elderly . “The problems of possible imbalances – resumes Novelli – do not only arise in the event of a lack of interferon production, but also when it is the organism itself that destroys it. And these
anti-interferon antibodies increase with increasing age ”.
The importance of testing
This is why the director of the UOC of Tor Vergata wishes to introduce some recently developed tests into routine tests , such as the Igra activated by the Italian Diagnostic Center, capable of measuring the release of interferon gamma to evaluate the response cell-mediated organism to Sars-CoV-2 in the form of B and T lymphocytes .
“It is a trivial laboratory test – he explains – which, for example, is already done regularly in France and which we are starting to do here too. Since it is an innate genetic response, independent of the type of virus variant , the test allows you to choose better treatments and cures. For this reason, in my opinion, the screening of anti-interferon antibodies must be included in the routine analyzes and would also be useful in the clinical classification of those who arrive in the emergency room , to highlight the most serious cases".
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The importance of the patient-guest in pandemics
Among the many "actors" involved in Covid, but also in any new pandemics, Giuseppe Novelli's invitation is in fact not to underestimate the patient-guest.
“We need to understand that the host has a fundamental role, through the study of its positive and negative response genes. Also to explain the differences in the spread of the ..
https://www.metropolitano.it/covid-novelli-interferone-e-la-chiave/
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