4 ms·

Maybe someone with a medical background can answer this: Does this mean that long covid could be treated by blocking certain protein receptors?

by V__ 4y ago

teilo 4y ago
I don't think this is a cause, but an indicator of an auto-immune related condition.
- johnchristopher 4y ago
  Covid may trigger autoimmunity though: [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.589380/full](T-Cell https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.5893... Hyperactivation and Paralysis in Severe COVID-19 Infection Revealed by Single-Cell Analysis). I wonder what long covid might be then...
evandijk70 4y ago
Another question: how common are GPCR-antibodies in non-covid patients?
- cjbgkagh 4y ago
  I think just about everyone has some level of GPCR-antibodies present just that people with long-covid have much greater amounts of them.
- robonerd 4y ago
  Very common, no doubt. Targeting GPCRs is a very wide net, GPCRs are a huge superfamily of proteins. > GPCRs are an important drug target and approximately 34%[6] of all Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs target 108 members of this family. The global sales volume for these drugs is estimated to be 180 billion US dollars as of 2018.[6] It is estimated that GPCRs are targets for about 50% of drugs currently on the market, mainly due to their involvement in signaling pathways related to many diseases i.e. mental, metabolic including endocrinological disorders, immunological including viral infections, cardiovascular, inflammatory, senses disorders, and cancer. The long ago discovered association between GPCRs and many endogenous and exogenous substances, resulting in e.g. analgesia, is another dynamically developing field of the pharmaceutical research.[2]
  - yunohn 4y ago
    I’m not a medical expert, but antibodies and auto-antibodies are not the same thing.
    - robonerd 4y ago
      An auto-antibody is any antibody targeting your own proteins. My point is GPCR is not a protein, but a huge family of proteins that are broadly relevant to a huge range of conditions.
hijodelsol 4y ago
Most probably not, at least not based on this study. First of all, GPCRs are a class of many different receptors present in many different cells and with vastly different downstream effects, nothing that could easily be reversed with a targeted pharmacological intervention. Secondly, if there are general anti-GPCR antibodies present, it is most likely that they would inhibit the receptors or lead to damage of the cells expressing the receptors. Activating autoantibodies do exist (a form of hyperthyroidism being a common example) but are not the norm, so additional blocking would not be indicated. I also have some questions about the study as such. First of all, this is only an abstract that doesn’t describe all of their methods, it absolutely doesn’t allow any conclusions. My field of research is not GPCRs so I can’t say whether it’s common in that niche but their choice of using an in vitro rat (this cross-species) cardiomyocyte assay for antibody detection coupled with the absence of a proper control group or seropositivity threshold (at least not mentioned in the abstract) immediately makes me want to see further data before I trust anything described here. Their presentation style also seems confusing to me at a first glance and making it hard to tell what they did. Would have to spend more time on this and with the proper paper to disassemble everything. It also seems odd that they would not investigate this further if they indeed believed it to be involved in Long Covid at the systemic levels but rather chose to publish this in an ophthalmology journal.
deng 4y ago
There are experimental drugs that can neutralize AAbs. They were successfully tested on Long Covid patients, but this is very preliminary. See for instance https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.754667/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.75466...

Maybe someone with a medical background can answer this: Does this mean that long covid could be treated by blocking certain protein receptors?

by V__ 4y ago

Maybe someone with a medical background can answer this: Does this mean that long covid could be treated by blocking certain protein receptors?

teilo 4y ago

I don't think this is a cause, but an indicator of an auto-immune related condition.

johnchristopher 4y ago
Covid may trigger autoimmunity though: [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.589380/full](T-Cell https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.5893... Hyperactivation and Paralysis in Severe COVID-19 Infection Revealed by Single-Cell Analysis). I wonder what long covid might be then...

evandijk70 4y ago

Another question: how common are GPCR-antibodies in non-covid patients?

cjbgkagh 4y ago
I think just about everyone has some level of GPCR-antibodies present just that people with long-covid have much greater amounts of them.
robonerd 4y ago
Very common, no doubt. Targeting GPCRs is a very wide net, GPCRs are a huge superfamily of proteins. > GPCRs are an important drug target and approximately 34%[6] of all Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs target 108 members of this family. The global sales volume for these drugs is estimated to be 180 billion US dollars as of 2018.[6] It is estimated that GPCRs are targets for about 50% of drugs currently on the market, mainly due to their involvement in signaling pathways related to many diseases i.e. mental, metabolic including endocrinological disorders, immunological including viral infections, cardiovascular, inflammatory, senses disorders, and cancer. The long ago discovered association between GPCRs and many endogenous and exogenous substances, resulting in e.g. analgesia, is another dynamically developing field of the pharmaceutical research.[2]
- yunohn 4y ago
  I’m not a medical expert, but antibodies and auto-antibodies are not the same thing.
  - robonerd 4y ago
    An auto-antibody is any antibody targeting your own proteins. My point is GPCR is not a protein, but a huge family of proteins that are broadly relevant to a huge range of conditions.

hijodelsol 4y ago

Most probably not, at least not based on this study. First of all, GPCRs are a class of many different receptors present in many different cells and with vastly different downstream effects, nothing that could easily be reversed with a targeted pharmacological intervention. Secondly, if there are general anti-GPCR antibodies present, it is most likely that they would inhibit the receptors or lead to damage of the cells expressing the receptors. Activating autoantibodies do exist (a form of hyperthyroidism being a common example) but are not the norm, so additional blocking would not be indicated. I also have some questions about the study as such. First of all, this is only an abstract that doesn’t describe all of their methods, it absolutely doesn’t allow any conclusions. My field of research is not GPCRs so I can’t say whether it’s common in that niche but their choice of using an in vitro rat (this cross-species) cardiomyocyte assay for antibody detection coupled with the absence of a proper control group or seropositivity threshold (at least not mentioned in the abstract) immediately makes me want to see further data before I trust anything described here. Their presentation style also seems confusing to me at a first glance and making it hard to tell what they did. Would have to spend more time on this and with the proper paper to disassemble everything. It also seems odd that they would not investigate this further if they indeed believed it to be involved in Long Covid at the systemic levels but rather chose to publish this in an ophthalmology journal.

deng 4y ago

There are experimental drugs that can neutralize AAbs. They were successfully tested on Long Covid patients, but this is very preliminary. See for instance https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.754667/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.75466...