elemental.medium.com
Some cool stuff with supercomputing:
The Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July. (https://elifesciences.org/articles/59177)
Once Covid-19 has established itself in the body, things start to get really interesting. According to Jacobson’s group, the data Summit analyzed shows that Covid-19 isn’t content to simply infect cells that already express lots of ACE2 receptors. Instead, it actively hijacks the body’s own systems, tricking it into upregulating ACE2 receptors in places where they’re usually expressed at low or medium levels, including the lungs.
The renin–angiotensin system (RAS) controls many aspects of the circulatory system, including the body’s levels of a chemical called bradykinin, which normally helps to regulate blood pressure. According to the team’s analysis, when the virus tweaks the RAS, it causes the body’s mechanisms for regulating bradykinin to go haywire. Bradykinin receptors are resensitized, and the body also stops effectively breaking down bradykinin. (ACE normally degrades bradykinin, but when the virus downregulates it, it can’t do this as effectively.
The end result, the researchers say, is to release a bradykinin storm — a massive, runaway buildup of bradykinin in the body. According to the bradykinin HYPOTHESIS, it’s this storm that is ultimately responsible for many of Covid-19’s deadly effects. [Emphasis mine]. Other papers (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267506/) had previously identified bradykinin storms as a possible cause of Covid-19’s pathologies.
A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged
A closer look at the Bradykinin hypothesis
This is pretty neat. Researchers think they have figured out the biological mechanism that creates the more deadly side effects of Covid-19. Basically, covid is hijacking the body's ACE2 receptors to make more. It can affect the circulatory system through something called bradykinins, that regulate your blood pressure. Covid can wear this system down and make your body over produce bradykinins which can lead to a "storm" in the body that leads to the more deadly covid symptoms. The more we know, the better we can treat this.
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Here's the CDC vaccine tracker: COVID-19 vaccine tracker
If I were in college right now, I would demand my tuition back.Wow, hearing on the Today show about how different universities are handling suspected COVID-19 cases. And I say suspected because in a lot of cases the students are not getting tested
One student interviewed this morning said they asked her her symptoms. They didn't send her to a nurse or recommended testing. They instructed her to stay in isolation in her dorm room for 10 days. Nothing more.
Another university told a student to return home and isolate at home for 10 days. Nothing else.
Some universities have special isolation dorms where they deliver each morning 3 meals for the day. The universities that have these are reporting that they are almost out of capacity in the isolation dorms. Many of the students in the isolation dorms have not been tested. They were placed into the isolation dorms based on their symptoms.
On the opposite end of isolation, a returning student who had tested positive 10 days before move in day at her university was told it's been 10 days since your positive test. She is free and clear and has no restrictions.
