Study: coronavirus can harm the carrier even after its death

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the pandemic of which swept across the planet several years ago, has the characteristics of a “zombie” and can cause harm to its carrier even after splitting. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles. They studied seven different coronaviruses that can infect people. And they found a characteristic feature of SARS-CoV-2 that makes it more dangerous than others.

We are accustomed to the fact that after the destruction of the virus, the body uses particles of the split infection to prepare the immune system for the next attacks. After decay, the virus should be harmless. But SARS-CoV-2 behaves differently. Some of its fragments can cause acute immune reactions that aggravate the course of the disease.

The authors of the study ran through a machine learning system all possible combinations of peptides remaining after the breakdown of SARS-CoV-2 proteins. And some of them are very similar to molecules that our immune system uses to enhance inflammatory responses. Particles of the dead virus actually assemble into “zombie complexes” that provoke the human body into autoimmune conditions, scientists noted.

In addition, these fragments of SARS-CoV-2 cause the same gene expression as the full virus. All this may explain why the pandemic version of the coronavirus provoked such a severe course of the disease and often led to death.

Researchers also point out that each organism breaks down foreign proteins differently. It is this difference that determines why some people had a hard time with the coronavirus, while others did not even notice the disease.

The idea that fragments of broken down viruses can continue to have negative effects on the body is relatively new. Therefore, there are no unambiguous methods for combating such “zombie” manifestations. The authors of the work believe that a solution to the problem may be to slow down the production of specific enzymes in the body that are responsible for the decomposition of the virus into more harmful components.