What is the relationship of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine with the Polish discovery of the COVID-19 mechanism?

We come back to the discovery of the COVID-19 mechanism, and at the same time how to inhibit the symptoms of this disease. In July, we published an article whose starting point was a medical report on the subject. At that time, Magdalena Filcek said in an interview that she is in the process of writing a research paper.

Discovery of the COVID-19 mechanism - there is already a body of scientific work

Today is a another step further - on October 1, together with doctors: Dr. Mayank Vats, pulmonologist and Dr. Anna Skrzyniarz-Plutecka, an anesthesiologist, she published a completed research paper in Medical and Research Publications in the Journal of MAR Pulmonology, entitled: "Discovery of the Mechanism of COVID-19, SIRS and SEPSIS, Defense and Treatment. Mast cells and Histamine Storm an Overlooked Aspects in COVID-19 and in Ventilated Patients Potential Role of Antihistamine.” 

The discovery of scientist Magdalena Filcek and the collected scientific information described by her in the publication (https://www.medicalandresearch.com/assets/articles/documents/DOCUMENT_20210929103608.pdf) may help to better understand the mechanism of COVID-19 pathophysiology, as well as why people may respond to the coronavirus differently. The data is available as open access and may be the inspiration for WHO or the Ministries of Health to improve existing or develop potential new defenses against sickness, treatment methods to protect people during early stages of infection and to help curb the severe course of the disease. The work broadens the scope of the discovery as it covers both the known mechanisms of COVID-19, SIRS and sepsis. 

As we already described in detail in the previous article Magdalena Filcek is a scientist, neuro-architect, mechanic and hot air balloon pilot, designer of solutions improving the psychophysical condition of astronauts in space, pilots and people on Earth, her interdisciplinary knowledge in medicine, physiology, and aerostatics and gas physics, including thermodynamics, and the influence of the increase in gas temperature on its volume and pressure helped her to discover the mechanism of the development of COVID-19 symptoms and sepsis. This discovery coincides with the findings of this year's Nobel Prize winners in the field of medicine.

 Discovery of the COVID-19 mechanism and the Nobel Prize in medicine 2021

- We noticed that the air temperature delivered to the patient's lungs by the ventilator is around 17 Celsius degrees lower than it should be in the lungs (37 Celsius degrees), thus the air mixture will be lower than the required humidity. In addition, when this cold and dry air is naturally heated in the lungs, according to Charls' law, it will increase in volume and / or pressure, putting pressure on the surrounding tissues while also cooling and drying them. 

It was a breakthrough moment of discovery for me, and at the same time so obvious the fact that too much cold and pressure will be somehow noticed by the receptors in the mast cells of the lungs, which in turn will trigger their activation and specific further reactions - this process of cell receptivity is confirmed by the published research and medical papers of this year's Nobel laureates. David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian identified the TRPV1, TRPM8 ion channels that are activated by a number of different temperatures, and the Piezo1 and Piezo2 ion channels that are activated by applying pressure to cell membranes, understanding how heat, cold, and mechanical force, touch, body position, and movement can initiate complex interactions at the chemical level between our senses, cells, and the environment, and adapt the body to the world around it. - says Magdalena Filcek.

- The nervous system was thoroughly examined in the 19th century in terms of its anatomy and physiology. We can "with the naked eye" see the brain or a cut nerve. And when a nerve is cut, we find it quite easy that we cannot move our fingers, hand, leg, etc., but also that we cannot feel touch, pressure, heat, cold or even pain in the area that supplied the damaged nerve. 

We have learned over time, in the 20th century, more precisely how the stimuli of the light (electromagnetic) wave are perceived and "translated" into a current impulse in the optic nerve, or a chemical stimulus at the end of the olfactory nerve in the nose, or how vibrations of the sound wave of air are converted by bones middle ear, also on the "current" along the membranes of the cells of the auditory nerve. 

For decades, the mechanisms and receptors of the skin, recognizing touch or mechanical pressure (including a strong impact), have also been known, although very generally. However, only the works of David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, in detail, at the level of the cell membrane (neuron), explained the mechanism of how it happens that we feel, for example, a different intensity of temperature or mechanical pressure, from the touch of a light breeze, through pinching by the rubber of a sock, up to a blunt blow to the head - presents Dr. Mirosław Mastej. 

- Nobel laureates also found that the TRP and Piezo channels also contribute to many additional functions in various physiological processes that depend on the detection of temperature or mechanical stimuli, including blood pressure, respiration, bladder control, etc. According to the currently available knowledge, mast cells and their degranulation are part of the body's correct response to an allergen, biological factor, bacteria, viruses, chemical, toxins, physical, such as temperature or mechanical pressure (also as a foreign elements in the body or UV radiation) on their cell membranes. Additionally, mast cells are located everywhere in our body, mainly in the skin, intestinal and respiratory epithelium, and in the bone marrow - says Magdalena Filcek. 

Dr. Mastej, who has been dealing with histamine for several years, scientifically and medically, believes that from the discovery of Magdalena Filcek and the extension of knowledge from the discoveries of this year's Nobel Prize winners, there is a very short path to explaining why many patients react with urticaria and other symptoms of allergy after exposure to cold or excessive heating (or burns), why some athletes or workers feel such reactions after strenuous exercise. 

- It is also easier to explain the allergic symptoms often described by ordinary non-allergic patients "after going out into the wind", "jumping into cold water", or after pressing a belt from a trouser / skirt. We often look for an allergen, allergenic chemicals, some latex in the rubber band, and meanwhile the effect of temperature or pressure on the skin tissue and on mast cells causes their degranulation and histamine release, and consequently a cascade-chain of reactions leading to symptoms such as pruritus, urticaria, local swelling or extensive, burning, or watery runny nose, tearing or watery diarrhea, etc. In practice, quite often allergists look for an allergen or allergens in a symptomatic patient, while the patient does not have a real allergy, but only the so-called MCAS - Mastocyte Cells Activation Syndrome, which throw out excessively and unnecessarily histamine even with a weak pressure or temperature stimulus - says the doctor. Confirmation of the diagnosis of mastocytosis, anaphylaxis or activation of mast cells can be obtained by testing the level of tryptase, which mast cells also release during degranulation.  

- We are simply packed with mast cells in the walls of the mucous membranes, including the upper and lower respiratory tract, so they react to the cold and warmth of the air we breathe. 

Since we live in the pandemic air of Covid-19, on the occasion of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine and Mast Cell Syndrome, I must pay attention to the perhaps still unnoticed, but a breakthrough concept, just published by Magdalena Filcek, that it includes excessive activation of mast cells in the mucosa of the bronchial tree and lung parenchyma may be responsible for the rapid aggravation and exacerbation of pneumonia in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially when mechanical ventilation is used, where, apart from the harmful virus particles themselves, there is an iatrogenic stimulus in the form of under-heated air forced into too high pressure several times a minute to the lungs of seriously ill patients, with the bypass of the nose and throat, which in independent physiological breathing warm up or cool down and moisturize the air to the parameters of 36-37 Celsius degrees.  At the start of the 2020 pandemic, the death rate of people put into pharmacological coma and connected to a ventilator was around 60-70% (6-7 out of 10 people) in most countries - adds Dr. Mastej. 

 The aforementioned Dr. Anna Skrzyniarz-Plutecka also commented on the connection of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine with the discovery of Magdalena Filcek:

- I am very proud to be the co-author of the scientific report on the discovery of the COVID-19 mechanism, SIRS and sepsis - prevention and treatment, which was released on July 1, 2021, and the full paper describing the mechanism appeared on October 1, 2021.  

It is amazing that our publication was only 3 days ahead of the announcement of this year's Nobel laureates in the field of medicine. I am saying this for a reason, because this great honor went to two scientists David Julius from the USA and Ardem Patapoutan born in Lebanon. Their breakthrough discovery of temperature and touch receptors in the body helps to develop therapies for many diseases and is directly linked to the mechanism described in our work. One of the pathways presented in the hypothesis by Magdalena Filcek is the mechanism of histamine release from mast cells in the lungs under the influence of mechanical ventilation. This is where the connection with the discovery of two Nobel Prize winners occurs in the context of temperature and pressure receptors. In my opinion, this breakthrough in the field of physiology and medicine clearly confirms in a tangible way what we describe in our work - says. 

Dr Anna Skrzyniarz-Plutecka: The discovery of the Nobel Prize winners and our work can really contribute to a breakthrough in the treatment of patients undergoing, among others, respirator therapy.

The ordinator notes that in most cases, artificial ventilation at this time is based on the supply of a mixture of gases at room temperature (about 20 ° C) and thus reduced humidity to the patient's lungs at a given pressure or in a given volume (physiologically, the temperature in our lungs is 37 ° C and 100% humidity). 

- From my many years of practice as an anesthesiologist and intensivist, I know that ventilators and anesthesia machines are not standard equipped with active heat and moisture exchangers (HH), heaters or air humidifiers. Cold air can activate mast cells in the lungs of patients and release histamine from them, and consequently lead to a histamine-cytokine storm, which may result in bronchoconstriction and a decrease in saturation, or even damage to the lung parenchyma and barotrauma. The discovery of the Nobel Prize winners and our work can really contribute to a breakthrough in the treatment of patients undergoing, among others, respirator therapy. I wish all of us that this would be an inspiration for the medical community to continue research and change the standards of dealing with patients in Intensive Care Units - says Dr. Anna Skrzyniarz-Plutecka.