Eases pain
Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)↓
Also searched as Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2).
Not normally present in quiet tissue, it is switched on by the master inflammatory signal and amplifies the response. It appears here because inflammation of the heart muscle runs through it.
In depth
An inducible enzyme switched on by inflammatory signaling.
What drives it
Calms inflammation increases it.
Phase two — and this is the cruel part: the defense becomes the damage. 'The initial cellular and humoral immune responses may improve the outcome during phase 1; conversely, they ARE responsible for the harmful effect during phase 2. This is in part induced by molecular mimicry, which is caused by mimicked EPITOPES shared between the viral and cardiac antigens' (PMC2519249 — Acute viral myocarditis). ⇒ because the virus and the heart look alike to the immune system, it kills both: 'virus-infected (antiviral immunity) and uninfected (autoimmunity) cardiomyocytes'. The phase that does the lasting harm is not the infection. It is the response to it. PMC2519249
What it drives
It increases Heart muscle inflammation.
Phase two — and this is the cruel part: the defense becomes the damage. 'The initial cellular and humoral immune responses may improve the outcome during phase 1; conversely, they ARE responsible for the harmful effect during phase 2. This is in part induced by molecular mimicry, which is caused by mimicked EPITOPES shared between the viral and cardiac antigens' (PMC2519249 — Acute viral myocarditis). ⇒ because the virus and the heart look alike to the immune system, it kills both: 'virus-infected (antiviral immunity) and uninfected (autoimmunity) cardiomyocytes'. The phase that does the lasting harm is not the infection. It is the response to it. PMC2519249
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.