COVID-19 disease severity is determined by the individual patient’s immune response. The precise mechanisms taking place inside the lungs and blood during the early phase of the disease, however, remain unclear. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Freie Universität Berlin have now studied the cellular mechanisms taking place at the onset of inflammatory lung injury caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Their findings suggest that lung injury requiring mechanical ventilation does not arise as a direct result of the damage caused by the proliferating virus. Writing in Nature Communications, the researchers report that inflammatory processes involving lung endothelial cells appear to play a crucial role in disease severity.

For more information see: https://www.charite.de/en/service/press_reports/artikel/detail/understanding_lung_damage_in_patients_with_covid_19/