Technology Networks Immunology and Microbiology Severe COVID-19 arises in part from the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s impact on mitochondria, tiny oxygen-burning power plants in cells, which can help trigger a cascade of organ- and immune system-damaging events, suggests a study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, along with other members of the COVID-19 International Research Team.
Severe COVID-19 has been considered an inflammatory “cytokine storm” condition in which the immune response to a viral infection becomes excessive, flooding the bloodstream and tissues with immune signaling proteins at levels that cause lung-impairing inflammation and other signs and symptoms.