Interview with Dr. Alessio Fasano: SARS-CoV-2 reservoir/spike protein + microbiome in MISC/LongCovid

Dr. Alessio Fasano is the W. Allan Walker Chair of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. He is also the Director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MGHfC. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms by which bacterial pathogenesis, activity of the gut microbiome, and intestinal mucosal biology impact the development of chronic inflammatory conditions such as celiac disease. As part of this research, he discovered zonulin, a protein responsible for regulating intestinal tight-junctions. Recently, he turned this expertise to the study of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) - a life threatening illness that can develop in children weeks after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In a seminal study, his team showed that a SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in the gut and associated intestinal permeability can allow viral spike protein to leak into the blood in a manner that can drive hyperinflammation in patients with the disease. Here is a link to that study:
www.ncbi.nlm.n...

[@AJansenNL]

So interesting, especially the bit about the microbiome. I was not breastfed, but got bottle fed with cow's milk. Then it turned out I was lactose intolerant. I can't remember a time that I didn't have digestive problems and bad stools. I have had ME for at least 22 years, and the first symptoms started in the gut. But I suspect I've had it since my early childhood, because now I realise that even back then I had PEM.

[@pettdan]

Thanks Amy! This was my favourite episode so far. Maybe because I developed histamine intolerance with longcovid and seem to have persistent virus in the gut and leaky gut.

[@johnsienkiewicz1477]

I hope they are studying vaccine injury too.

[@traiandanciu8139]

If coronaviruses when are released from infected hyjaked cells,catch a lypidic part of hyjaked cells membrane, theoreticaly, some patients can develop some cross antybody that enhance erytrocyte aggregation like coin rolls at low blood temperature. (a sort of,,low temperature agglutinine,,)

[@traiandanciu8139]

Did we know at what tissue temperature did SARS COV2 better replicate? At TWiV659 at min29 I see a clue. Virologist Christian Drosten indicate that at 34 -35 degree Celsius ,SARS COV2 infect cells, in cell culture (sept 2020)better.

[@bradsalz4084]

How does one volunteer for the enventual phase 3 trial?

[@traiandanciu8139]

To replicate ,viruses use hyjaked cells enzimatic machinery This machinery use like coenzime cation Zn. Are Zn used by hyjaked ( infected) cells.? May Zn increase viral replication.? If infected cells use more Zn ,the level of Zn decrease in cell culture, after viral infection. May be in a BSL3 somebody did this experiment?