Research Projects

COVID-19 symptoms, such as inflammation of blood vessels and overreaction of the immune system, are linked to spikes in the blood level of the Human serum Amyloid A (sAA) protein. systemic amyloidosis is believed to be related to these symptoms in acute COVID19 patients and is also behind the delayed appearance of sARs-COV-2 associated pathologies such as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIs-A). symptoms of MIs-A may include impaired heart function, vascular abnormalities, or large-vessel strokes. The increase in the onset of neurodegenerative and other amyloid diseases induced by cross-seeding with sAA poses another grave outturn of COVID-19-originated sAA amyloidosis. The long-term consequences of sARs-COV-2 infections will be especially serious in elderly patients. Pathologies such as MIs-A strike even patients with mild or undetected COVID symptoms. This suggests that sARs-COV-2 infections raise the risk for amyloid formation not only by causing over production of sAA but also directly by exposure to the virus. This project aims to study the interaction with sARs-COV-2 proteins, examining the thermodynamics and kinetics of sAA amyloid formation. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation will be used to study the effect of sARs-COV-2 infections on sAA aggregation processes. The outcome will be an understanding of the processes by which sARs-COV-2 exposure could increase the long-term risk for pathologies associated with sAA amyloidosis and how this risk can be potentially mitigated.