| I've been doing some lab & modeling research on this, and it's more complex. I think it's a non-linear dynamics problem. In a nutshell, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) does block interferon response by using molecular mimics. Some of the proteins encoded in the virus are really similar to proteins in the interferon pathway, so this is not surprising. Still pretty unexplored and a nice route towards finding treatments. Now, the interesting part is that the dynamics of interferon is very non-linear. Cells exchange interferon signals with other cells in the same tissue to pass information and coordinate with the immune system. There are fairly sophisticated models (using stochastic message passing!) that confirm lab observations on regular non-infected cells [1]. My hypothesis is that by blocking interferon in a sufficient number of cells on individuals with already disrupted innate immunity (due to ageing, insulin resistance, etc.) the system becomes chaotic. Infection by e.g. pneumococci is tolerated because the signaling is perturbed and then, all of a sudden, you get a massive amount of proinflammatory molecules secreted and cells decide to undergo apoptosis. That's the cytokine storm that everyone talks about. Sadly, pursuing these ideas within academia is hard as most (but not all) biology labs are really hostile to mathematical models, even if they explain or predict things they can't using hand waving. Perhaps I should seek VC funding. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02640-8 |