Immune System Trip Wire Detects COVID-19, Researchers Discover
Biologists at the University of California San Diego have discovered a new way that the immune system detects certain viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The inflammasome immune protein known as CARD8 can serve as a trip wire to detect a range of viruses. The researchers found that CARD8 functions differently among various species and even varies between individuals in the human population due to genetic variation. The findings provide evidence that CARD8 has evolved substantially across different species of mammals and individual humans.