Monday, December 12, 2022

UC Berkeley: How a viral toxin may exacerbate severe COVID-19. Really!

The never ending pandemic! Hysteria and scaremongering!

Caveat: I did not have the time for a thorough investigation of the claims and I am not a medical expert. However, I have some serious doubts about this viral toxin hypothesis!

So the researchers injected something inside the body of mice for a treatment of two hours??? This does not appear to be a natural process! This is an extreme  and possibly dubious approach to demonstrate viral toxin effects!

"... The study shows how a portion of the SARS-CoV-2 “spike” protein can damage cell barriers that line the inside of blood vessels within organs of the body, such as the lungs, contributing to what is known as vascular leak. Blocking the activity of this protein may help prevent some of COVID-19’s deadliest symptoms, including pulmonary edema, which contributes to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ..."

From the study:
"... To determine whether SARS-CoV-2 S could mediate vascular leak in vivo, we utilized our previously characterized dermal leak model, which involves local intradermal injection of compounds into distinct spots in the dorsal dermis of mice followed by intravenous administration of dextran conjugated to Alexa fluor 680 to serve as a tracer. Following a 2-hour treatment, mice were euthanized and the local relative accumulation of dextran-680 in the dorsal dermis was measured by a fluorescent scanner31,33,36. Given our observations that SARS-CoV-2 S mediates barrier dysfunction in an ACE2-independent manner, we utilized WT C57BL/6 J mice that do not express human ACE2 and are not permissive to infection by most SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Wuhan and Washington isolates9,37. We observed that, comparably to the DENV NS1 positive control, SARS-CoV-2 S induced vascular leak in the dorsal dermis of mice above control conditions, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 S is sufficient to trigger vascular leak in vivo (Fig. 3A, B). ..."

How a viral toxin may exacerbate severe COVID-19 | Berkeley News


Fig. 1: SARS-CoV-2 S triggers endothelial and epithelial barrier hyperpermeability.


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