Autoimmune spread
Epitope spreading↓
Also searched as Epitope spreading.
This is the bridge between the two halves of the illness. When heart muscle breaks down, it releases proteins the immune system has never properly met. It learns to attack them — and then keeps attacking long after the virus itself is gone. Untreated, about half of patients die within two years of diagnosis.
In depth
The step where dying heart cells spill proteins the immune system then learns to attack.
What drives it
Heart muscle cell reduces it.
How an infection becomes an autoimmune disease — the step has a name. A Japanese cardiology source states the three-phase structure directly and names the bridge: '第二期 (phase II)では、心筋組織の崩壊が心筋抗原の流出につながり自己免疫を誘導（epitope spreading）' — in phase ii, the breakdown of heart muscle tissue leads to the release of cardiac antigens, inducing autoimmunity by epitope spreading (近畿大学医学部 微生物学教室 — 心筋炎 Myocarditis (Kindai University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology)). ⇒ the dying muscle cell spills proteins the immune system has never properly met. It learns to attack them, and then keeps attacking after the virus is gone. And the prognosis is stark: '未治療の場合、約半数の患者さんが、診断後２年以内に死亡するという統計もあります' — untreated, about half of patients die within two years of diagnosis.
What it drives
It increases Immune balance.
10.1038/s41598-021-84751-3 — How an infection becomes an autoimmune disease — the step has a name. A Japanese cardiology source states the three-phase structure directly and names the bridge: '第二期 (phase II)では、心筋組織の崩壊が心筋抗原の流出につながり自己免疫を誘導（epitope spreading）' — in phase ii, the breakdown of heart muscle tissue leads to the release of cardiac antigens, inducing autoimmunity by epitope spreading (近畿大学医学部 微生物学教室 — 心筋炎 Myocarditis (Kindai University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology)). ⇒ the dying muscle cell spills proteins the immune system has never properly met. It learns to attack them, and then keeps attacking after the virus is gone. And the prognosis is stark: '未治療の場合、約半数の患者さんが、診断後２年以内に死亡するという統計もあります' — untreated, about half of patients die within two years of diagnosis. doi 10.1038/s41598-021-84751-3
It increases Heart muscle protein.
How an infection becomes an autoimmune disease — the step has a name. A Japanese cardiology source states the three-phase structure directly and names the bridge: '第二期 (phase II)では、心筋組織の崩壊が心筋抗原の流出につながり自己免疫を誘導（epitope spreading）' — in phase ii, the breakdown of heart muscle tissue leads to the release of cardiac antigens, inducing autoimmunity by epitope spreading (近畿大学医学部 微生物学教室 — 心筋炎 Myocarditis (Kindai University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology)). ⇒ the dying muscle cell spills proteins the immune system has never properly met. It learns to attack them, and then keeps attacking after the virus is gone. And the prognosis is stark: '未治療の場合、約半数の患者さんが、診断後２年以内に死亡するという統計もあります' — untreated, about half of patients die within two years of diagnosis.
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.