🦠 COVID-19’s Hidden Trick: How a Viral Protein Turns Your Own Immune System Against You – And the Common Drug That Can Stop It
🦠 COVID-19’s Hidden Trick: How a Viral Protein Turns Your Own Immune System Against You, And the Common Drug That Can Stop It.
📅 June 24, 2025
🧬 Source: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
✍️ Medical Rewrite by Dr. Humaira Latif
🧩 The Shocking Discovery
New research has uncovered a previously unknown saboteur within the COVID-19 virus: the nucleocapsid protein (NCP)—long known for packaging viral RNA—now revealed to have a more sinister role. This protein can leap from infected cells to healthy ones, tagging them with a viral "flag" that fools the immune system into attacking the body’s own tissues.
And here’s the twist: a common blood thinner, enoxaparin, may hold the key to stopping this immune sabotage in its tracks.
🧬 What Exactly Is Happening?
According to the study, published in Cell Reports, researchers found that
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The SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein detaches from infected cells and attaches to the surface of uninfected epithelial cells.
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Once tagged, these healthy cells are mistakenly recognized by the immune system as infected.
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This activates the classical complement pathway—an immune reaction that damages cells through inflammation, which may contribute to severe COVID-19 complications and long COVID.
🔬 Behind the Breakthrough
This discovery came from a collaborative effort led by Dr. Alexander Rouvinski, Prof. Ora Schueler-Furman, Prof. Reuven Wiener, and a team of brilliant PhD students and clinicians at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center.
The study used
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Human cell cultures
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Advanced microscopy
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Patient-derived samples
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And work conducted in the BSL3 national biocontainment lab
💡 How Does the Protein “Stick” to Healthy Cells?
The NP protein binds to heparan sulfate proteoglycans—sugar-like molecules found on many cell surfaces. Once bound, it forms clusters on the cell surface, which attract anti-NP antibodies.
This antibody response then:
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Triggers the complement system
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Leads to the destruction of the marked cells
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And creates a misguided immune attack on uninfected tissues
💊 The Game-Changer: Enoxaparin
The silver lining?
🔹 Enoxaparin, a heparin-like anticoagulant, blocks this harmful interaction.
🔹 It competes for the same binding sites on healthy cells, preventing NP from attaching.
🔹 Both lab tests and patient samples confirmed its ability to stop the immune misfire.
This repurposing of a widely available drug offers an exciting new path to mitigate immune-mediated damage in COVID-19 and possibly other viral diseases.
🧠 Why It Matters
This study explains how COVID-19 can cause damage far beyond the lungs, even in cells the virus never infected. It also sheds light on lingering symptoms in long COVID, where the immune system may continue to attack “marked” healthy cells long after the infection is gone.
🧪 Understanding this mechanism opens new avenues for therapy, not just for COVID-19 but potentially for other viral illnesses where immune system misdirection plays a role.
👨⚕️ A Tribute and A Legacy
The study is dedicated to the memory of the late Prof. Hervé (Hillel) Bercovier, a pioneer in microbiology whose vision continues to inspire medical science.
📚 Research Citation
Journal: Cell Reports (2025)
Title: Transfer of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein to uninfected epithelial cells induces antibody-mediated complement deposition
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115512
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