Researchers from McMaster University in Canada, Flinders University in Australia, and the University Medical Center in Greifswald, Germany, announced that the cause of rare blood clots associated with some coronavirus vaccines, particularly adenovirus-based vaccines, is a molecular error in the immune system.
In this condition, called vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), the body produces antibodies that mistakenly attack a person’s own blood proteins.
This reaction causes a decrease in platelets and the formation of dangerous clots in the veins; researchers have managed to identify the viral component that initiates this rare reaction.
Theodore Warkentin, a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University and the study’s lead author, explained that the immune system’s natural response to adenovirus goes awry in very rare cases.
The presence of a specific gene variant alone is not enough. The K31E mutation in the antibody is necessary for the clotting process to be activated; the structural similarity between the viral protein and the body’s proteins, especially platelets, causes the antibodies to attack platelets and create dangerous clots.
