XPost: misc.news.internet.discuss   
   From: here@is.invalid   
      
   Scientists discover cause of major COVID-19 symptom   
      
   Blood clots seen in severe COVID-19 infections could stem from   
   autoantibodies.   
      
      
       Researchers saw an increase in autoantibodies that attack cells in   
   COVID-19 patients with blood clots.   
      
       "Inflammation begets clotting, and the clotting leads to more   
   inflammation," says one of the study's authors.   
      
   COVID-19 symptoms have starkly different manifestations in different   
   patients, with one of the more severe side effects of an infection   
   being venous thromboembolism, commonly known as blood clots.   
      
   Given that the coronavirus primarily attacks the body's respiratory   
   system, circulatory problems associated with cases are an alarming and   
   dangerous symptom.   
      
   New research published by Science looks at cases of blood clots seen   
   in COVID-19 patients, and finds that those experiencing blockages in   
   veins accompanying a coronavirus infection appear to result from the   
   formation of autoantibody cells, an immune protein that erroneously   
   attacks the body when released to fight a foreign pathogen.   
      
   Observing serum samples of 172 patients hospitalized with COVID-19,   
   scientists found a prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL),   
   cells associated with high platelet counts and more severe respiratory   
   diseases, in about half of the population.   
      
   To corroborate this evidence, researchers also injected the serum with   
   a high aPL count from COVID-19 patients into a sample mice population.   
   Once samples from COVID-19 patients with high autoantibody counts were   
   introduced into the test subject mice, they developed similar blood   
   clots.   
      
   The study authors ultimately suggest that these autoantibodies   
   perpetuate inflammation in a COVID-19 infection, specifically within   
   blood veins in patient lungs.   
      
      
      
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