COVID-19 exposure may trigger a dangerous immune disorder.
A rare and often deadly autoimmune disease has surged since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and scientists now believe exposure to the virus may be the trigger.
The condition involves the immune system mistakenly attacking a protein called MDA5-normally a crucial early-warning sensor for viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
When MDA5 is targeted, patients can develop painful rashes, muscle weakness, and in severe cases, interstitial lung disease-a rapidly progressing form of lung inflammation that frequently proves fatal.
Prior to the pandemic, only six cases of this disease were documented in the UK between 2018 and 2019. But following COVID-19’s arrival, researchers in Yorkshire recorded 60 new cases in just three years, predominantly affecting white adults aged 43 to 71. Many had no major risk factors, and some had no confirmed infection, raising concerns that even low-level exposure to the virus could provoke a dangerous immune overreaction. Scientists found unusually high levels of the MDA5 protein and IL-15-an immune signaling molecule-in patient blood samples, suggesting COVID-19 may overstimulate the body’s antiviral defences, pushing the immune system into a self-destructive loop.
source
“MDA5-autoimmunity and interstitial pneumonitis contemporaneous with the COVID-19 pandemic (MIP-C).” eBioMedicine,