Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health have made a significant discovery that could lead to new treatments for the acute effects of COVID-19, long COVID, and possibly other viral infections. The surprising findings, published in mBio, suggest that COVID-19 may prompt some people's bodies to produce antibodies that act like enzymes, known as "abzymes."The researchers found that these abzymes may interfere with important bodily functions, such as blood pressure regulation, blood clotting, and inflammation. This could explain some of the perplexing and severe symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, as well as the persistent issues associated with long COVID.
“Some patients with COVID-19 have serious symptoms and we have trouble understanding their cause. We also have a poor understanding of the causes of long COVID,” said senior author Steven Zeichner. “Abzymes are not exact copies of enzymes and so they work differently, sometimes in ways that the original enzyme does not. If COVID-19 patients are making abzymes, it is possible that these rogue abzymes could harm many different aspects of physiology. If this turns out to be true, then developing treatments to deplete or block the rogue abzymes could be the most effective way to treat the complications of COVID-19.”
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a protein on its surface called the Spike protein. This protein binds to a protein called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) on the cell's surface, which normally helps regulate blood pressure. The researchers hypothesized that some patients might produce antibodies against the Spike protein that mimic ACE2 and have similar enzymatic activity. Their analysis of plasma samples from COVID-19 patients confirmed that a small subset of these individuals had antibodies with enzymatic properties, or abzymes. These abzymes may be responsible for some of the long-term effects of COVID-19, such as issues with blood coagulation and inflammation.
The discovery of COVID-19-induced abzymes has the potential to lead to new treatments for both acute COVID-19 and long COVID. By targeting and depleting or blocking these rogue abzymes, doctors may be able to address the underlying causes of the disease's complications, rather than just treating the symptoms.
The researchers note that there is still much work to be done to fully understand the role of abzymes in COVID-19 and other viral infections. They plan to study pure versions of the antibodies with enzymatic activity and investigate the differences between patients who developed long COVID and those who did not.