It is perhaps common knowledge now that Covid-19 has lasting impact on our physical health and mental wellbeing. There had been several studies in the past two years which shows how the virus leaves a lasting impact, and a new study by UK researchers has now added to the large volume of existing reports which show that the infection can even damage organs.
A team of researchers in UK recently found that some Covid infected cells can 'explode' causing serious damage of the lungs and other internal organs. It has been evident in the past two years that Covid primarily affects our lungs, and cause acute respiratory distress and can even lead to death in some cases. During this time, a phenomenon that has been common noted is a cytokine storm.
During a cytokine storm our immune system in a proactive mode releases too many infection-fighting proteins called cytokines, which not only attacks the unhealthy tissues, but also the healthy tissues leading to severe damage of organs, and often causing multiple organ failure.
According to the study published in Nature journal, a team from Royal Free London (RFL) found that the immune cells infected by Covid can often undergo a "cell explosion" known as pyroptosis, which not only kills the virus, but also releases inflammatory content into bloodstream. These contents travel through internal organs, including lungs, and damage them.
While it sounds like awful news, scientists are hopeful that since now they know how the process works, and organ damage happens, they will be able to devise ways to stop it.
A co-author of the paper and RFL consultant hepatologist Gautam Mehta told IANS, "The pyroptosis pathway acts as an 'alarm system'; if it senses bacterial or viral particles within the cell it leads to an 'explosion' of the cell and the release of pro-inflammatory contents. This has the benefit of eliminating the infection but can lead to severe inflammation as a result. Pyroptosis literally implies a 'fiery' mode of cell death."