ABSTRACT
This paper proposes an analysis of the storytelling of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan in the first months of 2020 as depicted by two TV dramas: Heroes and With you. This analysis will be carried out by identifying the elements common to the two TV series in the description of their protagonists and the way in which they dialogue with real people and about real facts, also in relation to the presentations offered by television producers to the press, and those published in specialized or party magazines. The dramas are therefore considered as spaces of interpretation of the individual experience in a collective sense, and as discourses in which memory exerts a fundamental role in the definition of the social and cultural self, in order to understand whether the COVID pandemic is regarded in China as a cultural trauma. © 2022 Universita degli Studi di Milano. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes an analysis of the storytelling of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan in the first months of 2020 as depicted by two TV dramas: Heroes and With you. This analysis will be carried out by identifying the elements common to the two TV series in the description of their protagonists and the way in which they dialogue with real people and about real facts, also in relation to the presentations offered by television producers to the press, and those published in specialized or party magazines. The dramas are therefore considered as spaces of interpretation of the individual experience in a collective sense, and as discourses in which memory exerts a fundamental role in the definition of the social and cultural self, in order to understand whether the COVID pandemic is regarded in China as a cultural trauma. © 2022 Universita degli Studi di Milano. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background:Some infectious agents may act as inducers of autoimmune conditions1. Despite SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce autoimmune phenomena in infected people2, individual risk factors or underlining mechanisms leading to loss of immunological tolerance are still unknown.Objectives:To assess the rate of development of autoantibodies in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients and their relation on infection clinical course and disease parameters.Methods:One-hundred and nine convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients were studied and underwent multidisciplinary assessment in a Day Hospital clinical setting. For each patient, demographic, clinical and immunological data were collected and, at study entry, autoimmune profile [antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), antibodies reacting with extractable nuclear antigens (anti-ENA), antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs), Lupus anticoagulant (LA), anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) IgM and IgG, anti-β2 glycoprotein I (anti-β2GPI) IgM and IgG] was assessed by Fluorescent immunoassay. Moreover, IL-6 plasma levels were assessed by ELISA (ELLA).Results:After a median time from hospitalization for SARS-CoV-2 infection of 53.3 ± 0.9 days, 55(50.5%) SARS-CoV-2 convalescent patients showed the positivity (ABpos) of at least one autoantibody. In particular, 31(28.4%) were positive for LA, 11(10.1%) for IgM-RF, 8(7.3%) for ANA and 6(5.5.%) for IgG-aCL whilst less than 2% showed other autoantibody positivities (IgM-aCL, IgG-anti-β2GPI, ENA, ACPA, c-ANCA, Scl70 and RNP). Analyzing the patient-related characteristics associated with the development of autoimmunity, convalescent male patients were more likely characterized by the development of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) (37.3%) than female (16.7%;p=0.02). Considering the disease-related characteristics, convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients who experienced severe pneumonia (i.e., oxygen support need) during hospitalization, more likely received IL-6R-inhibitor administration (47.3%) and developed more than one autoantibody (87.5%) (aPL + another AB) than convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients who did not need oxygen support [(12.5%;p=0.02) (OR95%IC: 9.5(1.4-109.1)] or IL-6R-inihibitor (1.9%;p0.001). Finally, assessing cytokines plasma levels in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients stratified based on the development of autoantibodies we found that, despite a significant reduction of IL-6 plasma levels from hospitalization, convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients who developed autoantibody positivity had higher IL-6 plasma levels (8.5 ± 2.5 pg/ml) than convalescent SARS-CoV-2 ABneg patients (5.6 ± 1.5 pg/ml;p=0.07), mostly if considered autoantibodies other than aPL (15.4 ± 7.7 pg/ml)(p=0.01).Conclusion:Loss of self-tolerance is a common phenomenon in the medium-term follow-up of SARS-CoV-2 convalescent patients whose occurrence is dependent by a severe disease course and by an aberrant host inflammatory response. Long-term follow-up will reveal AB persistency and their clinical impact.References:[1]Barzilai O, et al. Current Opinion in Rheumatology 2007.[2]Zhou Y, et al. Clin Transl Sci. 2020.Disclosure of Interests:None declared