Hacker News

2 hours ago by morsch

"Endotheliitis is an immune response within the endothelium in blood vessels, in which they become inflamed. The condition can cause oedema of the surrounding tissue, including the stroma, and can cause irritation and pain. If it is within the cornea, it can result in permanent loss of vision. The condition can be caused by a number of factors, such as mumps and cytomegalovirus under certain circumstances." (Wikipedia)

And, as to the first question that came to my mind, from the paper: "Collectively, our results suggest that the S protein-exerted EC damage overrides the decreased virus infectivity. This conclusion suggests that vaccination-generated antibody and/or exogenous antibody against S protein not only protects the host from SARS-CoV-2 infectivity but also inhibits S protein-imposed endothelial injury and ultimately decrease cardiovascular complication-associated mortality in COVID-19 patients."

an hour ago by undefined

[deleted]

28 minutes ago by stevemk14ebr

Can someone ELI5 please? My field is low level computer systems, and unfortunately that knowledge does not extend to low level physiological processes!

2 hours ago by Alex3917

Yeah we've known this for over 10 years, zero surprise here. There were literally popular books written saying that this would be the mechanism of action for novel coronavirus pandemics (and how to treat them) years before the current pandemic even started, e.g.:

https://www.amazon.com/Herbal-Antivirals-Remedies-Resistant-...

Here is the direct quote from the book, published in 2013:

"Once receptors on these cells are compromised there is enhanced vascular permeability, increased lung edema, neutrophil accumulation, and worsened lung function. In essence, once the virus begins attaching to ACE-2, ACE-2 function begins to be destroyed. ACE-2 function also tends to be less dynamic as people grow older, hence the more negative the effects of SARS infection on the elderly. [...] ACE (in contrast with ACE-2) inhibitors increase the presence of ACE-2 and help protect the lungs from injury."

an hour ago by Blackthorn

Yes, that's why they went looking to verify that hypothesis and lay out the mechanism that the virus acts...

2 hours ago by unanswered

If this is a function of the spike protein, doesn't that mean the mRNA vaccines cause this effect as well?

an hour ago by busyant

This is a legitimate question, so I don't know why it's being downvoted. Especially given the statement in the abstract of the paper that says, "We show here that S protein alone can damage vascular endothelial cells (ECs) in vitro and in vivo...."

That being said, other people on this thread have provided reasonable mechanistic explanations as to why the vaccines would not have this effect, but I will also add we have _empirical_ evidence that the vaccine does not impair endothelial function (or at least it is extremely rare) because we have millions of people who have received the vaccine without impaired endothelial function.

an hour ago by rolph

this is a relevent question, the difference between the two cases, is that the virus is mobile and has opportunity to travel through the entire endothelial tissue structure, interacting with many molecular types and situations

the vaccine causes a small volume of stationary cells in the muscle mass of the shoulder to express the S protien on the surface, staying in place but providing signal to the immune system

[adndm] keep in mind the virus replicates, inside you, the vaccine doesnt, and the vaccine stays where you put it, it doesnt spread out everywhere that has a receptor

an hour ago by TheAdamAndChe

The spike protein from the virus bands to ACE2 receptor, messing them up. The vaccine primes our bodies to attack the spike protein, preventing it from binding to ACE2 and thus preventing it from messing up ACE2 receptors.

an hour ago by ronri19

But the vaccine causes the body to produce spike protein. The CDC emphasizes the spike protein is harmless, but this new research finds that the spike protein itself can cause damage. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different...

an hour ago by fnordpiglet

The vaccine instructs cells to produce a piece of protein from the spike. Thereā€™s no such thing as ā€œaā€ spike protein, the spike is a structure of proteins that enable a lot of functions for the virus. They choose a piece of protein from the structure thatā€™s antigenic then encode the mRNA to produce that. The mRNA is delivered into the cell by the lipid transport and the cell picks up the instruction and produces the antigenic protein fragment. Your immune system responds as expected and attacks the antigen carrying things - existing cells included. The inoculated mRNA is quickly broken down because mRNA is a standard process in cell function.

Unless the effect observed is due to the antigen the vaccine produces then you wouldnā€™t expect to see the same behavior in vaccinated humans as they saw experimentally with a full virus, even if some part or the full assembly of the spike is a cause for cellular damage.

an hour ago by karmicthreat

Your body is non-stop taking damage every day. Its when the body can't compensate fast enough that its a problem.

The load from an mRNA vaccine is miniscule compared to severe, or moderate covid.

an hour ago by retrac

It causes the body to produce it in a limited, fixed quantity in proportion to the number of viable RNA strands that make it into a cell, largely localized at the injection site. Just a guess but this probably means its risk is extremely limited.

The wild virus causes this protein to be produced without check.

It wouldn't just be the mRNA vaccines, anyway. The viral vector ones, as well as the inactivated virus, and the spike protein unit extract ones, all involve getting some of the spike protein either made in the cells, or introduce it directly.

an hour ago by Alex3917

> this new research finds that the spike protein itself can cause damage.

Downregulation of ACE-2 causes damage, not the spike protein. The spike protein itself causes downregulation, but not enough to cause damage.

Daily digest email

Get a daily email with the the top stories from Hacker News. No spam, unsubscribe at any time.