SciTechDaily Scientists discovered that overactivation of immune genes and the RAAS system causes cytokine storms in severe COVID-19 cases. This leads to widespread inflammation and organ damage.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pittsburgh, and Weill Cornell Medicine, as part of the COVID-19 International Research Team, identified a novel cause of cytokine storm—an extreme inflammatory response linked to a higher risk of death in COVID-19 infections.
Their findings were recently reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.