Science Spotlight: TGFβ drives long COVID inflammation via EBV

A study in Nature suggests that TGFβ-induced immune suppression and subsequent reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus together drive the extreme inflammation seen in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) following SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin (DRFZ) scientists studied 145 children with MIS-C following SARS-CoV-2 infection and found high levels of TGFβ, a regulatory cytokine that suppresses immune cell activity, compared with healthy children or children who recovered from a SARS-CoV-2 infection without developing MIS-C. In children with MIS-C, this immune cell suppression caused latent Epstein-Barr virus to reactivate and multiply. The body responded by creating more immune cells, but they were non-functional due to high TGFβ, causing systemic, uncontrolled hyperinflammation...