Inflammasomes Are the Thing That Stops the Replication of Infectious Virus

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Researchers have found a mechanism through which inflammation is triggered. They've started to investigate what happens if you interrupt this mechanism. In mice, they were able to prevent the mice developing these severe symptoms by blocking these inflamasomes. But as you say, that then leads to the virus being allowed to continue replicating.

Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a debate amongst researchers about whether the body's immune cells can themselves be infected by SARS-CoV-2. Now two new studies show that they can - and what's more, the work has revealed a new mechanism for the massive inflammatory response seen in severe COVID. In this episode of Coronapod, we dig into the papers, asking why it has taken so long to get an answer to this question? How immune cell infection could lead to severe disease? And whether this new mechanism could provide a new avenue for the development of therapeutics?

News: What triggers severe COVID? Infected immune cells hold clues

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