Snake Venom Compound is Associated with Severe COVID-19

 

A study recently published by researchers at the University of Arizona and SUNY Stonybrook has found that patients with severe COVID-19 also have high levels of an enzyme found in snake venom.

The compound is called secreted phospholipase A2 Group IIA. In deceased COVID-19 patients, its concentration is 9.6 times higher that in patients with mild COVID-19, and five times higher than in patients with a severe case, according to the study.

One of the study's authors, Dr. Floyd Hilton, says the enzyme is naturally present in our bodies in low concentrations and plays some role in preventing bacterial infections. For unknown reasons, it increases with COVID-19, and in severe cases this is leads to disintegration of organ tissue:

These high levels of this enzyme are looking at those tissues in the organs and saying, "you look like a bacteria, let's shred your membranes. Let's put these organs out of their misery."

Phospholipase A2 is a common component of the venom of many kinds of poisonous snakes, including our Arizona friend, the rattlesnake.  The connection to snakes is interesting because it suggests that antivenin drugs that target Phospholipase A2 might be repurposed to fight severe COVID-19.

Image by M. Maggs from Pixabay 

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