IEEE Spectrum August 2, 2020
According to a team of researchers in the US (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University Tennessee, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky, Yale University, medical schools) lung fluid samples from COVID-19 patients consistently revealed over-expression of genes that produce bradykinin, while also under-expressing genes that would inhibit or break down bradykinin. This is the core mechanism that explains a lot of the symptoms. They arrived at this conclusion by crunching data sets representing some 17,000 genetic samples while comparing each of these samples to some 40,000 genes. They highlight ten possible therapies developed for other conditions that might also address the coronavirus’s “bradykinin storm” problem…read more. Open access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
…A hyperactive bradykinin system permits fluid, shown in yellow, to leak out and allows immune cells, shown in purple, to squeeze their way out of blood vessels. Credit: Jason Smith/Oak Ridge National Laboratory