Shane Crotty, a virologist at the Institute of Immunology in La Jolla (USA), told Bloomberg that the body's delayed response to an invasion of infection may be the “trick” of the coronavirus, RIA Novosti reports.
“It [the trick] is to avoid the initial innate immune response for a significant period of time, and in particular to avoid an early type I interferon response,” Crotti explained.
Research by American scientists that interferon deficiency may be critical in severe disease was published in the journal Science.
In some patients with severe COVID-19, the interferon response was impaired “due to genetic abnormalities or due to unwanted antibodies” that attack interferon. It also turned out that 94 percent of patients whose antibodies attacked interferon are men. This explains the more frequent cases of severe disease among men.
Earlier, American scientists named a factor that significantly reduces mortality from coronavirus. According to experts, among patients infected with coronavirus with normal levels of vitamin D in the blood, there are significantly fewer severe cases and deaths.
