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+--- Thread: This theory might explain “Covid toes” & other mysteries of the disease (/thread-9114.html)
This theory might explain “Covid toes” & other mysteries of the disease - C C - Sep 20, 2020
https://www.vox.com/21445038/covid-19-symptoms-treatments-bradykinin-cytokine-storm
EXCERPT: . . . in severe Covid-19 cases, runaway inflammation was causing damage to tissues and organ failure [...] Initially, it appeared that the virus might cause immune cells to overproduce molecules called cytokines, causing a severe inflammatory response known as a cytokine storm. But what Joseph Roche suspected as he sifted through early case studies was that it wasn’t the immune system’s cytokines causing so much of the damage but an entirely different pathway in the circulatory system knocked off balance by the virus: bradykinin signaling.
He believed that an accumulation of two peptides, des-Arg(9)-bradykinin, abbreviated to DABK, and bradykinin — both part of a system that regulates blood pressure and other functions — were starting a feedback loop of inflammation and tissue injury. By stopping this reaction, he argued in an open letter to the scientific community in April and in a May paper published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology, doctors could prevent some of Covid-19’s worst effects.
Several months later and 500 miles away, a group of researchers unaware of Roche’s work started feeding the world’s second-fastest computer data from about 17,000 genetic samples from 1,300 Covid-19 patients. [...] After almost a week of data crunching, the supercomputer landed on something they found surprising: bradykinins. ... Elements of the supercomputer’s analysis have been corroborated since it was published in July, and researchers say it could help lead the way to more effective treatments.
Here’s a deep dive into what has been published on bradykinin signaling since the pandemic began, and what we know about how this compound might be instigating some of the worst Covid-19 damage [...] bradykinin can impact how your blood coagulates — possibly explaining the strange clotting problems reported in Covid-19 patients ... As the virus causes bradykinin to accumulate in the cells it has hijacked, it makes your blood vessels permeable, letting your blood leak out. This could also explain the “Covid toes,” that have been linked to blood circulation... (MORE - details)
RELATED: Does the COVID-19 cytokine storm really exist? Has it been debunked?