Antibodies from Long Covid patients prompt symptoms in mice

Two new studies suggest dysfunctional immune system attacking a patient’s own tissues might drive the challenging condition

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So far, it hasn’t been clear whether antibodies found in Long Covid patients’ blood directly cause illness—and thus are a good target for treatment. So, two Long Covid research teams recently decided to dig into the question—one led by immunologist Akiko Iwasaki at Yale University, the other by immunologist Jeroen den Dunnen at Amsterdam University Medical Center and neuroimmunologist Niels Eijklekamp at University Medical Center Utrecht. Both teams first isolated antibodies from the blood of Long Covid patients and then transferred the mixture into healthy mice to see whether that would prompt symptoms that mirrored those of the patients, or the abnormalities in their immune system.

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