Like Venom Coursing Through the Body: Mechanism Driving COVID-19 Mortality Identified

Abstract Infection Concept

Researchers found that the enzyme sPLA2-IIA may predict which severe COVID-19 patients are at higher risk of death.

Researchers have identified what may be the key molecular mechanism responsible for COVID-19 mortality – an enzyme related to neurotoxins found in rattlesnake venom.

An enzyme with an elusive role in severe inflammation may be a key mechanism driving COVID-19 severity and could provide a new therapeutic target to reduce COVID-19 mortality, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Researchers from the University of Arizona, in collaboration with Stony Brook University and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, analyzed blood samples from two COVID-19 patient cohorts and found that circulation of the enzyme–secreted phospholipase A2 group IIA, or sPLA2-IIA – may be the most important factor in predicting which patients with severe COVID-19 eventually succumb to the virus.

sPLA2-IIA, which has similarities to an active enzyme in rattlesnake venom, is found in low concentrations in healthy individuals and has long been known to play a critical role in defense against bacterial infections, destroying microbial cell membranes.

When the activated enzyme circulates at high levels, it has the capacity to “shred” the membranes of vital organs, said Floyd (Ski) Chilton, senior author on the paper and director of the UArizona Precision Nutrition and Wellness Initiative housed in the university’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.   

“It’s a bell-shaped curve of disease resistance versus host tolerance,” Chilton said. “In other words, this enzyme is trying to kill the virus, but at a certain point it is released in such high amounts that things head in a really bad direction, destroying the patient’s cell membranes and thereby contributing to multiple organ failure and death.”

Together with available clinically tested sPLA2-IIA inhibitors, “the study supports a new therapeutic target to reduce or even prevent COVID-19 mortality,” said study co-author Maurizio Del Poeta, a SUNY distinguished professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Collaboration Amid Chaos

“The idea to identify a potential prognostic factor in COVID-19 patients originated from Dr. Chilton,” Del Poeta said. “He first contacted us last fall with the idea to analyze lipids and metabolites in blood samples of COVID-19 patients.”

Del Poeta and his team collected stored plasma samples and went to work analyzing medical charts and tracking down critical clinical data from 127 patients hospitalized at Stony Brook University between January and July 2020. A second independent cohort included a mix of 154 patient samples collected from Stony Brook and Banner University Medical Center in Tucson between January and November 2020.   

“These are small cohorts, admittedly, but it was a heroic effort to get them and all associated clinical parameters from each patient under these circumstances,” Chilton said. “As opposed to most studies that are well planned out over the course of years, this was happening in real time on the ICU floor.”

The research team was able to analyze thousands of patient data points using machine learning algorithms. Beyond traditional risk factors such as age, body mass index and preexisting conditions, the team also focused on biochemical enzymes, as well as patients’ levels of lipid metabolites.

“In this study, we were able to identify patterns of metabolites that were present in individuals who succumbed to the disease,” said lead study author Justin Snider, an assistant research professor in the UArizona Department of Nutrition. “The metabolites that surfaced revealed cell energy dysfunction and high levels of the sPLA2-IIA enzyme. The former was expected but not the latter.”

Using the same machine learning methods, the researchers developed a decision tree to predict COVID-19 mortality. Most healthy individuals have circulating levels of the sPLA2-IIA enzyme hovering around half a nanogram per milliliter. According to the study, COVID-19 was lethal in 63% of patients who had severe COVID-19 and levels of sPLA2-IIA equal to or greater than 10 nanograms per milliliter.

“Many patients who died from COVID-19 had some of the highest levels of this enzyme that have ever been reported,” said Chilton, who has been studying the enzyme for over three decades.

An Enzyme with a Bite

The role of the sPLA2-IIA enzyme has been the subject of study for half of a century and it is “possibly the most examined member of the phospholipase family,” Chilton explained.  

Charles McCall, lead researcher from Wake Forest University on the study, refers to the enzyme as a “shredder” for its known prevalence in severe inflammation events, such as bacterial sepsis, as well as hemorrhagic and cardiac shock.

Previous research has shown how the enzyme destroys microbial cell membranes in bacterial infections, as well as its similar genetic ancestry with a key enzyme found in snake venom. 

The protein “shares a high sequence homology to the active enzyme in rattlesnake venom and, like venom coursing through the body, it has the capacity to bind to receptors at neuromuscular junctions and potentially disable the function of these muscles,” Chilton said.   

“Roughly a third of people develop long COVID, and many of them were active individuals who now can’t walk 100 yards. The question we are investigating now is: If this enzyme is still relatively high and active, could it be responsible for part of the long COVID outcomes that we’re seeing?”

Reference: “Group IIA Secreted Phospholipase A2 is Associated with the Pathobiology Leading to COVID-19 Mortality” by Justin M. Snider, Jeehyun Karen You, Xia Wang, Ashley J. Snider, Brian Hallmark, Manja M. Zec, Michael C. Seeds, Susan Sergeant, Laurel Johnstone, Qiuming Wang, Ryan Sprissler, Tara F. Carr, Karen Lutrick, Sairam Parthasarathy, Christian Bime, Hao H. Zhang, Chiara Luberto, Richard R. Kew, Yusuf A. Hannun, Stefano Guerra, Charles E. McCall, Guang Yao, Maurizio Del Poeta and Floyd H. Chilton, 24 August 2021, Journal of Clinical Investigation.
DOI: 10.1172/JCI149236

12 Comments on "Like Venom Coursing Through the Body: Mechanism Driving COVID-19 Mortality Identified"

  1. Scaremongering B*llsh!t.

  2. Howard Jeffrey Bender, Ph.D. | August 24, 2021 at 11:26 am | Reply

    These folks are studying cells that have been infected with Covid-19, ie, those that the virus was able to avoid the vaccine and inject its contents.

    The vaccines focus on the protein spikes. All the variants have different spikes, with Delta having one that’s more efficient at getting around the vaccines. But the real problem is in the virus and why the most dangerous, MERS, SARS, and Covid-19, are so infectious. My independent research has found multiple one-in-a-million nucleotide sequence matches between all the coronaviruses and the human genome. Those sequences are the same as some of the loops of human tRNA. Using those loops and their amino acid code matches, viruses may be able to fool the nucleus membrane in cells to allow the virus to enter and associate with the human DNA, creating more opportunities for further infection. Our immune system may be compromised and may no longer be able to stop the virus and other diseases from attacking organs throughout the body. Vaccines that attack the virus protein shells while ignoring their contents are doomed to failure from the Darwin effect, but recognizing these loops suggests a possible approach to successful coronavirus vaccines. Only the infection process is considered in my work, not the innate virulence of the virus. For more info, check out this YouTube, Coronavirus – Using Your DNA Against You. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dOIzD6ch8s

    • There’s no Howard Bender with a background in any biological or medical field on ResearchGate. Only a string theorist whose one lonely publication is a conference paper on linguistics and someone who is apparently making particle weapons for the military or whatever.

      For more info, check out this statement: you’re a fraud.

      • Howard Jeffrey Bender, Ph.D. | August 25, 2021 at 5:32 am | Reply

        I notice you’ve said nothing negative about my work or my results.
        And you don’t mention that so many papers on Covid-19 have been done that only ones from certain individuals/institutions are even considered for publication. I’ve been working with NIH folks for the past 2 years on these concepts, and have gone back and forth with researchers who have done interesting work. We’re still at the early stages of understanding coronaviruses.

        It’s always sad when solid research is dismissed, without even looking at it, by people who don’t understand anything about the scientific process. Fortunately, most of the people who follow SciTechDaily do understand. I feel sorry for you.

        • You’ll be presenting your EVIDENCE then?

          • Howard Jeffrey Bender, Ph.D. | August 25, 2021 at 6:07 am |

            Real evidence would come from experimental results with lab animals, as mentioned in the YouTube. I don’t have access to that kind of lab, and all the research funding is going after the protein spikes. My results come from analyzing NIH data and associated published research by others. You’ll see my email address in the YouTube – if you send me an email I’ll send you my paper and you can see what I’ve got and save a buck.

  3. RetiredLiberal | August 25, 2021 at 9:12 am | Reply

    This is Good news keep up the good work. drbopperthp stop with your magaland BS, I live in FL where its the younger liberal dems that are not getting the shots and believe in the conspiracy theories, I’m regularly trying to explain to them, but its no use.

  4. So would antivenem help?

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