Scientists discover the immune system can maintain optimal temperatures amid COVID-19

The immune system might repair damaged tissue after a moderate to severe viral infection within the human central nervous system (CNS) when the temperature of the infected tissue is too warm scientists suggested Saturday a long-sought finding after years of searching for a way of preserving human cells after exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Researchers need to start interviewing patients to understand what could happen in that scenario Nick Ponsky an immunologist at Britains Liverpool University who co-wrote a research paper on the topic said in a statement. At present there are no clinical guidelines on how to manage patients who were infected by COVID-19 said Ponsky.

What weve really shown is that when you expose a patient to viral infection or COVID-19 and then allow them to recover for longer than they would in a normal immune response which is a bit like allowing someone who had influenza to get treated with influenza later in life and then maintaining optimal temperature for several months some cells remain damaged Ponsky told Reuters Health by email.

Human-animal models were tested in laboratory conditions in petri dishes along with a hot-mic thermal infection in a C-section delivery model by a Ph. D. student at Britains Francis Crick Institute he said.

When the temperature of the infected cell was reached between 85-85 degree Celsius and 100 degree Celsius some cells started to divide at a slower pace and was able to take up platelets more easily. Thats about 70 degrees of normal he said. Those cells are not robust and therefore they are not vigorous enough and effectively get rid of their COVID-19 infection.

By the fourth day some of the cells in the infected animals showed mortality. It was unexpected and it wasnt seen in the studies we looked at so we must have spotted something sometime before we started he said.

The findings from the study could illuminate the potential benefit of using the host cell as a model to study COVID-19 said Marc Sbanguin a virologist at the Church Tumor Research Institute in Malaga Spain.

A focus on thermogenesis using an infected animal as a surrogate animal in these sorts of diseases would make a lot of sense Sbanguin told Reuters Health by email. We have a lack of data so we can go off guess as to what the efficacy of our models is and what would that model look like for more advanced models.