According to this new Nature paper, those with severe COVID are spiking higher cytokine signatures early on. This would suggest value in testing, including possibly IFN-gamma (see below), and addressing it early through anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, as well as targeted anti-inflammatory nutraceutical interventions. This is, of course, a ‘standard’ approach used in Functional Medicine, but perhaps some individuals with specific immunological responses during COVID require a more aggressive version of this intervention. Click here to read.
Who is vulnerable to developing runaway IFN-gamma? On one hand, we suspect INF-gamma plays a key role in clearing the virus for some; but others, IFN-gamma looks to be dysregulated. Perhaps baseline IFN-gamma elevation from chronic inflammation (again, think about all of those comorbidities that go with COVID- all have higher baseline inflammation, and INF-gamma is commonplace)…. if you are running organic acid panels on your patients, a clue to INF-gamma elevation is high quinolinic acid, the potent neurotoxin produced from tryptophan under the direction of INF-gamma.
For a review of our phased immunological approach to COVID-19, including targeted anti-inflammatory nutraceuticals, please refer to this published paper.