WHY IS COVID-19 ABLE TO AFFECT PEOPLE SO DIFFERENTLY?
The wide range of outcomes of being infected with COVID-19 – from showing no symptoms at all, to rashes, severe respiratory illness and death – reflects the huge variation found in people’s immune systems. How the immune system responds to a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 is influenced by many factors, from our genes and general health to the other pathogens we’ve encountered in the past.
With COVID-19, there seems to be a critical period during which the immune system either mounts a protective response, stifling the virus and slowing its spread in the body, or a dysfunctional, inflammatory response, where the body starts to attack itself.
As part of a healthy immune reaction, local white blood cells recognise the virus as foreign and release chemicals called cytokines. These molecules help direct and amplify the body’s immune response, which can limit the spread of the virus and kill off infected cells. But the release of too many cytokines in a short period can start to cause collateral damage to healthy cells. In critical cases of COVID-19, the acute lung problems that are characteristic of the disease are caused by a ‘cytokine storm’ – a dangerous runaway overreaction of the immune system that creates even more inflammation and tissue damage than the virus.
“We know that as we age, our immune systems are not as good at clearing infections,” says Dr Elizabeth Mann, an immunologist who has been following the progress of COVID-19 patients arriving at hospitals across Manchester. “Older people are also predisposed towards the types of inflammatory immune responses that cause damage in COVID-19.”
この記事は BBC Focus - Science & Technology の September 2020 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は BBC Focus - Science & Technology の September 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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