Improved SARS Treatment

2004-06-13 15:07

A SARS pathogenesis study team of the Institute of Infectious Diseases attached to the No. 302 Army Hospital has recently discovered that the special lung — attacking self — antibodies produced in patients who are infected with SARS viruses is closely related to the damage caused by their own immune pathology. The new findings have explained why hormone therapy has proved effective in treating SARS patients and has laid a base for further understanding the SARS pathogenesis and improving associated clinical treatment effects.

Researchers on this team screened 55 blood specimens collected from 32 SARS patients and found that the personal antibodies that attack SARS in the patients' own lungs is one of the major killers that causes immune damage to the patients' lung and other organs. It is explained that under normal conditions, the antibodies in the human body protect the human body itself rather than launching an attack against it. However, when being infected with the SARS viruses, a healthy person will produce such self — antibodies to attack his or her own organs. This causes abnormally excessive immune reactions within the body. This unusual behavior will result in damage to lungs or other organs, and makes itself a key element causing the death of SARS patients. Preliminary animal testing has also confirmed the finding.

To understand the technical lines of the self-antibody behavior, researchers have, on the basis of applications of molecular biology and immune techniques, discovered that SARS viruses and cells of the human lungs and other organs share certain similar elements in their antigens. It is these similar antigens that have produced the self — antibodies to attack the patients' own lungs. This triggers a series of abnormal immune reactions and causes immune damage to the lungs and other organs.

Experts stated that the above mentioned findings have created a certain theoretical base for understanding the pathogenesis of SARS and associated clinical treatment. As hormones have strong immunity suppressing functions, the application of hormones and other immunity suppressing drugs in adequate amounts has proved one of the most effective approaches to treating SARS patients who have suffered immune damage caused by abnormal and excessive immune reactions in their early stage.