ABOVE: An immunofluorescence microscopy image of neutrophils (DNA labeled in blue) expelling NETs (neutrophil elastase stained green) in the presence of serum from a COVID-19 patient
JASON KNIGHT, YOGEN KANTHI, YU ZUO
In March this year, two University of Michigan physicians spotted a striking similarity between an autoimmune disease they had been studying and COVID-19. Both conditions appeared to involve blood clots in arteries, veins, and the microvasculature, rheumatologist Jason Knight and cardiologist and vascular medicine specialist Yogen Kanthi observed. Because a release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), webs of chromatin and proteins flung from immune cells, underlies the excessive clotting seen in the autoimmune disease, known as antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), they decided to study whether NETs could be relevant to COVID-19 as well.
The research team used serum samples collected at admission from 50 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 based on a PCR test, and measured their levels ...
