https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/c ... res_161133The majority of severe Covid cases have a T cell deficiency, caused by mass suicide of these cells following infection. But this apoptosis can be avoided, opening the way to a treatment for severe cases.
The study released on January 22 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-022-00936-x
Little summary :
Anyone who wants to try self-medication can, but it will take a lot of money. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/q-vd-oph.htmlHowever, the coronavirus does not need to enter these cells to cause their suicide, so their death is not a consequence of their infection. Just like HIV, which causes the cell death of infected CD4 lymphocytes, but also of those surrounding them, causing an immune deficiency which leads to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which makes the patient vulnerable to a large number of pathogens. Except that with the coronavirus, it is himself who takes advantage of this immune drop to infect various organs of the patient...
This programmed cell death of T lymphocytes would be triggered by an activation of caspases, enzymes which start the process of apoptosis, activation observed in blood samples from patients in intensive care because of Covid. The researchers had already observed this same mechanism with HIV, and had shown in 2018 that it was possible to stop this chain of events leading to lymphocyte suicide by blocking caspases with an inhibitor, Q-VD (produced by American company SelleckChem).
“The idea is now to set up phase 1 clinical trials to test the safety of caspase inhibitors in humans. T cells are the backbone of the immune system. Thus, these molecules could be useful in the long term for patients presenting with lymphopenia when they enter the hospital”, underlines Inserm researcher Jérôme Estaquier in a press release. One more hope for our arsenal against the coronavirus.
INSERM article https://presse.inserm.fr/covid-19-un-ph ... ses/44569/