The Role of Interferons in Long Covid Infection

Although the new generation of vaccines and anti-COVID-19 treatment regimens facilitated the management of acute COVID-19 infections, concerns about post-COVID-19 syndrome or Long Covid are rising. This issue can increase the incidence and morbidity of diseases such as diabetes, and cardiovascular, and lung infections, especially among patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease, cardiac arrhythmias, and ischemia. There are numerous risk factors that cause COVID-19 patients to experience post-COVID-19 syndrome. Three potential causes attributed to this disorder include immune dysregulation, viral persistence, and autoimmunity. Interferons (IFNs) are crucial in all aspects of post-COVID-19 syndrome etiology. In this review, we discuss the critical and double-edged role of IFNs in post-COVID-19 syndrome and how innovative biomedical approaches that target IFNs can reduce the occurrence of Long Covid infection.

Effects of prolonged exposure to ELF-EMF on HERVs expression in human melanoma cells

The Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are ancient remnants of exogenous retroviral infections. Their abnormal activation is associated with several diseases, such as cancer and autoimmunity. Epigenetic and environmental factors are probably playing essential roles in the expression of these elements. This study aimed to examine the 96-hour effects of ELF-EMF on HERV-H, K, and W expression in human melanoma cells. SK-MEL-37 cells (the human skin malignant melanoma) were continuously exposed to ELF-EMF (50 Hz) at 1.5 and 3 mT intensity for 96 hours. Following mRNA extraction, the expression level of HERV-H, K, and W was assessed by qPCR. According to our results, exposure to ELF-EMF intensities for 96 hours could significantly downregulate HERV-H, K, and W env gene expression (P<0.001). Our obtained data suggest that low intensity and long-term exposure to ELF-EMF may pave using this type of radiation as a novel therapeutic approach by neutralizing the HERVs upregulated expression in melanoma cells.