Thread by @1goodtern

I'm just a random seabird who did all my graduate and postgraduate study in humanities, so I'm hugely indebted to the people with the test tubes who do the hard fricking science like this 👇🔥
But I can translate this viral research into everyday English for you.

This is one of those really serious studies with really serious implications.

If you've been following the whole covid saga, you may recall that one of Covid's nasty acute tricks is to cause something called a cytokine storm - in 2020 and 2021, these were common and could cause massive damage to the body, especially the lungs.

That cytokine storm was effectively covid infection causing a massive overreaction from the body's defences.
A reaction so strong that it hurt the body itself.

But it's maybe not so much of an overreaction, because honestly, this virus is bad news.

Because the research above shows that covid infection can trigger permanently elevated levels of certain cytokines that can cause ongoing damage to **multiple organs** in the body.

The study above focuses on the damage to the heart, but the cytokines they studied are implicated in some other serious health conditions. I'll come back to them.

Cytokines, you see, are supposed to be elevated for *short* periods of time.

They're emergency services.
They need to be on call quickly, then on rest when the job is done. Until the next emergency.

Imagine if your street was always full of ambulances and fire engines and police cars and coastguard boats all with their lights on and sirens flashing day and night.

Covid infection seems to trigger chronically elevated levels of emergency cytokines in multiple ways:

First off there's actual persistent infection causing an actual persistent immune response.
Some people suffer *lasting ongoing replication of virus* in the cells of their body for *months and years*.

And viral remnants, incomplete fragments of the virus can float around the body for a while after the infection, setting off alarms, even if an infection has ended.

Covid also seems to be able to rewire the body's immune response to stay in a state of alert. That's still the subject of investigation.

Covid infection can harm the immune system and the systems of the body in ways that allow the reactivation of viruses like EBV, Herpes viruses, and others... causing ongoing immune response

Covid infection can trigger the production of *autoantibodies*.
An antibody attacks invading pathogens.

An *autoantibody* attacks *your own body*.

Then those autoantibodies then trigger the cytokines.

And covid infection can trigger 'inflammatory pathways', that emergency response, into staying active longer than they should.

And those cytokines measured with an innovative method in this study... they can cause an elevated risk of *multiple heart problems*.

But they're also implicated in these:

IL-12: This cytokine is linked to autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), where it drives an overactive immune response. High levels of IL-12 can lead to prolonged immune activation, contributing to tissue damage and inflammation.

IL-1β: Known for its role in inflammation, IL-1β is involved in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and heart disease. It can cause joint and tissue damage when overproduced and is also linked to inflammatory heart issues like myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle).

IL-6: This cytokine is associated with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and chronic inflammatory conditions like asthma and atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries).

Chronic IL-6 elevation can lead to ongoing inflammation and is also linked to “cytokine storms” in severe infections, which can damage organs.

MCP-1 (Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1): MCP-1 is involved in attracting immune cells to sites of inflammation and is associated with cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis and heart failure.

Elevated MCP-1 is also linked to obesity-related inflammation and diabetes, where it can contribute to chronic inflammation in blood vessels and organs.

And that's just a very quick potted summary.

Covid infections are doing very nasty secret hidden things to our bodies.

And *multiple infections* will be making that process worse and worse.

You don't make this damage better by getting reinfected.

When you start to dysregulate your immune system, all kinds of shit goes wrong.

Your heart is only *one* of those serious problems.

Here's the study in Nature:
nature.com/articles/s4156…

Hmm.
Seems like nature magazine is having problems at the moment.

If the link didn't work for you, bookmark it and come back!