Hadassah doctors crack the cause of fatal corona blood clots

[lupus-support1]

Hadassah researchers discovered that patients who form fatal blood clots have an increased level of alpha defensin protein in their blood.

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN JUNE 16, 2020

A research team at Hadassah Medical Center has discovered what they believe causes coronavirus patients to become seriously ill and even die. They also say they have a way to treat the cause before it’s too late.

At least 30% of patients with coronavirus develop blood clots that block the flow of blood to patients’ kidneys, heart and brain, as well as the lungs, according to international research. Hadassah researchers discovered that the patients who form these fatal clots have an increased level of alpha defensin protein in their blood, explained Dr. Abd Alrauf Higavi, who directs a lab at Hadassah and has been studying blood clots for 30 years.

“Patients with mild symptoms have a low concentration of alpha defensin,” he said. “Patients with strong disease symptoms have high levels. The people who die have very high levels.”

The Hadassah team studied more than 700 blood samples from 80 patients who were admitted to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital during the first peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Israel. The results show that alpha defensin speeds up blood clot formation, which causes pulmonary embolism, heart attacks and stroke. In addition, when blood clots form in the alveoli, whose function it is to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules to and from the bloodstream, this leads to respiratory distress and eventually intubation.

Multiple studies have showed that around 80% of coronavirus patients who are intubated die.

Higavi said his team is en route to a solution: Administering the drug Colchicine to coronavirus patients.

Colchicine is an approved drug used in the prevention and treatment of gout attacks, caused by too much uric acid in the blood.

Higavi said they completed testing Colchicine on mice and found it successfully inhibited the release of alpha defensin. Now, they are waiting the necessary approvals to test it on treating human coronavirus patients.

Higavi said the clinical trials would look both at use of the drug for severe patients and administering it to patients with mild or moderate symptoms to see if its use will help decrease the chances of their developing server cases of the disease.

“The drugs available today in the blood-thinning market do not fully address this clotting, since its mechanism differs from the mechanisms for which these drugs currently exist,” Higavi said. “Resources should be diverted to finding a suitable drug for coronavirus patients.”

SOURCE: jpost.com/health-science/ha...

LUpus Patients Understanding & Support (LUPUS): lupus-support.org/topic/322...

[HollyHeski Administrator]

That's really interesting - thank you

[MaryF Administrator]

Thank you for popping this useful information on here. MaryF

[July9]

Hi very interesting reading even more so for me as I'm on this drug colchicine since my stroke .I had a stroke in 2018 thank god no lasting effects but I was then diagnosed with APS and put on warfarin and aspirin I was also asked while in hospital if I'd be willing to go on a trial drug called colchicine well a trial drug for my condition it is they said a drug used for gout but they were trialing it on patients who had strokes and I fit the bill due to my test results I didnt ask to many questions only if it would do me any harm which they assured me it wouldn't and my stroke doctor was brilliant in picking up on APS as I'd had many years of all kinds of symptoms so I trusted him and I've been on it since .They check me regularly in the research centre which is a bonus. Now reading what you've said above I'm wondering if this is not only helpful with coronavirus but also APS clotting. Any thoughts on that ....Also on my next research visit I'll show this and ask them .. Always such interesting information on this site .

[Wittycjt in reply to July9]

My thoughts exactly, please let us know his response. @lupus, thanks for the post🤯

[Ray46]

Interesting, there seems to be quite a bit of research on alpha defensin being over-expressed in SLE. I wonder if same applies to APS - have had no luck on finding any research on that yet.

[KellyInTexas Administrator]

Thank you as always, Ros.

I’ve already shared this with a few sources. So nice to share good news in these difficult times.