Factor D May Block SARS-CoV-2 Virus Virility

Blocking a protein that enables the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus to turn the human immune system against healthy cells has been identified in a recent study by a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.

Based on the findings published in the journal Blood on September 2, 2020, the Johns Hopkins researchers believe that inhibiting the protein, known as factor D, will curtail the potentially deadly inflammatory reactions that many patients have to this coronavirus.

“When we added a small molecule that inhibits the function of factor D, the APC wasn’t activated by the virus spike proteins,” says senior author Robert Brodsky, M.D., director of the hematology division at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“We believe that when the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins bind to heparan sulfate, it triggers an increase in the complement-mediated killing of normal cells because factor H, a key regulator of the APC, can’t do its job.”