Huge piece of research that is currently in the pre-print stage for this paper. Reached out to Maria Cristina Sacchi (Italy) when I was informed about the paper. She kindly shared the abstract but not the full paper.
Based on my research into COVID-19 autoimmunity, these results could have significant implications.
It suggests that when monitoring Health Care Workers (HCW’s) over a 12 month period, they identified increased levels of antinuclear antibodies (ANA).
Measurement of ANA’s are a routine part of screening for multiple autoimmune diseases, and there has been increased prevalence in the general population over the past 20 years. This quote was taken from a paper looking at the prevalence across the USA
The prevalence of ANA was 11.0% in 1988-1991, 11.5% in 1999-2004, and 15.9% in 2011-2012 (trend P<0.0001), which corresponds to 22, 27, and 41 million affected individuals, respectively.
Dinse, Gregg E., et al. "Increasing prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in the United States." Arthritis & Rheumatology 72.6 (2020): 1026-1035.
What impact does mRNA vaccines have on autoantibodies?
In this Italian study they looked at a cohort of 108 HCW’s following their antibody titres before vaccination, at three months and at 12 months after vaccination.
It showed that 20% of vaccine recipients who were negative for ANA’s became positive within 12 months of vaccination. Additionally, those HCW’s who were already positive showed increased antibody titre.
Compared to influenza vaccination which in general did not alter the percentage of healthy adults with positive autoantibodies.
Toplak, N., et al. "Autoimmune response following annual influenza vaccination in 92 apparently healthy adults." Autoimmunity reviews 8.2 (2008): 134-138.
Although a small study in Italy, it is very difficult to replicate because the majority of HCW’s across the world have already been vaccinated.
It can be presumed that this trend would be replicated in the general population. Are HCW’s at greater risk for autoimmunity? It would seem that a 30% baseline is high compared to the USA figures. Granted, the HCW’s would be older and primarily female with a higher trend towards autoimmunity.
What does autoimmunity mean for the general population?
While ANA’s are non-specific regarding diagnosis of an autoimmune disease, their presence indicates a process that can lead to health issues in the future. Does the COVID-19 vaccine prime the immune system to developing autoimmune responses on further exposure to the virus?
My initial question has always been about the potential for combination of spike protein with free ACE-2 leading to an autoimmune response.
The main risk would be through targeting of ACE-2 autoantibodies to activate platelets and macrophages. This could increase the risk for thromboembolic complications as well as decreased effectiveness of macrophages which are central to immunity and elimination of cancerous cells.
A few Possible Outcomes
Increased heart attacks and stroke disease.
Increased infections across the population of uncommon organisms.
Higher risk of metastatic cancer.
Hi Philip; just came across this post of yours (me being an Anesthetist and Intensive Care physician in Germany). Are you aware of studies which examined these possible autoantibodies in the context of the disease Covid-19? Sure, these examinations must have been made in 2020, i.e. before the roll out of the genetic drugs.
I never heard of antinuclear antibodies before this post, and i have read dozens of medical and Covid related articles in the past 2 years. When you do the video version, perhaps you could introduce them.
(I consider myself an "anti-nuclear body" already, being against nuclear weapons and generally not in favor of new nuclear power plants until the waste and complexity and community safety problems are solved.)