The two main risk factors for severe COVID-19 are age and disability.
As you get older you repair less effectivelyand this in part of the aging process. This is in part because your macrophages dont clear the debris as much that is required for remyelination. These cells are going to be less able to get rid of infections. However it is not just macrophages that get old and this can be T cells too.
Immunosenescence: the role of age in multiple sclerosis.Ostolaza Ibáñez A, Corroza Laviñeta J, Ayuso Blanco T.Neurologia. 2020 Sep 19:S0213-4853(20)30226-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nrl.2020.05.016. Online ahead of print.
Introduction: The number of elderly people with multiple sclerosis (MS) has increased in line with population ageing. As the immune system presents profound changes over an individual’s lifetime, it is important to understand the differences between these patients and younger patients.
Development: Immunosenescence, defined as age-related alterations naturally occurring in the immune system, particularly influences tolerance, response, and adverse effects of disease-modifying treatments for MS. Thymic involution (shrinkage of the thymus where new T cells are made) is the most noteworthy characteristic of this phenomenon. This process leads to a reduction in the number of virgin (new naive) T cells. Other effects include an inverted CD4 + /CD8 + cell ratio, severe alterations in NK cell functioning, and reduced tissue repair capacity in the brain.
Conclusions: The number of older people with MS is increasing due to population ageing, advances in disease-modifying treatments, and improved health and social care of these patients. Ageing of the immune system increases the risk of infections, tumours, and autoimmune diseases in elderly individuals. Furthermore, neurodegeneration is accelerated in patients with MS due to the nervous system’s loss of remyelination capacity. Understanding of the changes affecting the immune system in the elderly population is essential to improving the care provided to this ever-growing patient group.
If you look at the MS News Today website, they posted one article indicating MS/DMT did not result in greater risk of COVID, but the next article states anti CD20 increases your risk! So frustrating and confusing.
It is abit increased based on Italian data, two Iranian data sets, the.unpublished Swedish data set and the combined world data, however this is not always significant.such as the French data, UK, first Italian study, some US data, it is a small increased risk. Less than doubled. What is your risk of.covid
It’s about how one’s body responds to COVID-19. There was a paper that looked at endogenous interferon response to virus. Those with muted response tend to do worse. It will be interesting to see if Rebif has an effect on acute disease.
Apparently the interferon response links to the higher covid rate in male
Here’s the paper by NIH
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-discover-genetic-immunologic-underpinnings-some-cases-severe-covid-19
ProfG has reported on this
Please see: https://multiple-sclerosis-research.org/2020/09/mscovid19-interferon-beta-and-nabs/
it shows there is a small influence of DMT on covid 19 the UK, French, Dutch, first italian and soem US studies show no influence, but a number of other show an effect
You’re always a step or two ahead. It must be the time difference😊
In short, if you are older with MS you’re screwed. Nothing that we didn’t already know unfortunately.
Try being old with MS that was not diagnosed for 14yrs and having Type 1 diabetes for 40+yrs, asthma, multitudes of spinal surgeries and having such depleted cells after only a year with Ocrevus (I quit after seeing my blood work). Scary scary stuff. Btw Prof G & Mouse Dr, any studies you have done or can report on in relation to how MS and MS treatments affect blood sugar & insulin in T1d?