A publication of the team of Marjan Versnel:
The study looked at a possible trigger of Long Covid: an immunesystem that reacts too quickly and too heavily. We specificly studied type I interferons (IFN I), which normally help with combatting viruses. Some viruses can epigenetically change immune cells, which makes them “always alert”
In this project immune cells of 2 groups of LC patiënts were studies. The cells were exposed in the lab to synthetic virusparts. what we noticed: in LC patiënts these cells produced significantly more IFN I than the healthy control cells, which points to an “overactive” immune respons.
We also found a weak relation between increased IFN I activity and exhaustionespecially in the Microx cohort. and because IFN I treatment is known to have exhaustion as a side-effect, this is an interesting clue that deserves a follow-up study, also for ME and other PAIS.
For who wants to know more: Marjan Versnel answers questions on the project and immunesignatures in these video’s