�y��vlog

Altogether, they and Barcelona colleague Francesc Graus have uncovered 11 of the 18 known varieties: a rogue’s gallery with sharply different symptoms depending on the autoantibody responsible.

In adapting the technique to treat autoimmune disease, the team gave T cells a beacon derived from bits of the anti-DSG3 autoantibody, which leads the killers straight to anti-DSG3 B cells.

These cells are the actual agents of destruction, so scientists investigating autoimmunity look for these T cell–autoantibody pairs.

“We really see broadly reactive autoantibody responses in these patients,” Dr. Iwasaki said.

Rather than one type of autoantibody being to blame, the scientists believe that Covid-19 is worsened when many different wayward antibodies arise in the same patient.