Covid, Reconstructing the causes of post-vaccination pediatric myocarditis

The persistent presence of high levels of free spike protein in plasma appears to be the cause of the rare myocarditis observed so far in the 12-21-year age group after vaccination against Covid-19 with messenger RNA (mRna) vaccines: research published In the journal Circulation by Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institutes, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This phenomenon is so rare that it is estimated that the cases are in the age group surveyed 18 out of a million, which is why the study was conducted on a small number of cases, 16, between January 2021 and February 2022.

The authors of the paper, coordinated by Lael M. Yonker of Massachusetts General Hospital, note that “Understanding the immune mechanisms involved in post-vaccine myocarditis will help improve the development of future vaccines against coronavirus diseases” and note that “the results do not change the risk-benefit ratio, which She definitely remains in favor of the effectiveness of vaccination in the prevention of severe forms of Covid-19.

The 16 young adults on whom the research was conducted, 13 of whom were male, had an average age of 16 years and all of them were immunosuppressed. Values ​​for cytokines, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, plasma spike protein dose, and T-lymphocyte dose for each were analyzed as for the 46 healthy peers. The only difference between intact and vaccinated with myocarditis was the persistent presence at High levels of free spike protein in plasma.

“This means that the protein is not bound to neutralizing antibodies circulating in the blood, which have not formed in children and young adults after the first dose,” notes virologist Francesco Percolo from the University of Salento. “In adults who have received the second dose of the vaccine – the expert continues – the immune response is stronger and the antibodies are able to bind protein S, while in children who develop myocarditis, the spike protein remains free without binding to neuronal antibodies” . From previously published in vitro studies, it appears that it is precisely the free protein S that damages cardiac granulocytes and the endothelium by activating the inflammation that underlies myocarditis.” Thanks to this research, Broccolo concludes — now it is possible to understand, at least in part, the Post-vaccine myocarditis in children”.