“Two proteins, named CXCL10 and IFN-gamma, popped up. We think these two are the major drivers of myocarditis,” Wu said. They operate like a tag team.

CXCL10 and IFN-gamma both belong to a class of proteins called cytokines: signaling substances that immune cells secrete to carry on chemical conversations with one another.

Hoping to listen in on these communications, the scientists generated human immune cells called macrophages – fierce first-responder cells of the immune system – in a dish and incubated them with mRNA vaccines.

The macrophages responded by pumping out various cytokines but, most notably, pronounced amounts of CXCL10. They also otherwise generally mimicked the vaccine responses of macrophages reported in humans, as shown by comparison with published data from vaccinated individuals.

When the scientists further supplied the dish with an additional kind of immune cell – T cells, roving sentinels that can recognize and mount immune attacks on specific pathogens but can also incite general arousal of the immune system – or even when they merely steeped T cells in the solution in which vaccine-administered macrophages had bathed, they saw a marked uptick in the T cells’ output of IFN-gamma. But T cells incubated with mRNA vaccine in the absence of macrophages or their bathwater produced only standard amounts of IFN-gamma.These results showed that macrophages are the chief source of CXCL10 and that T cells are the chief source of IFN-gamma in response to mRNA vaccination.

## Tag-teaming

But did the two cytokines, together, contribute directly to cardiac injury? The researchers vaccinated young male mice, then found heightened levels of cardiac troponin, the widely used clinical marker of heart muscle damage.The investigators also noticed infiltration of macrophages and another frontline take-no-prisoners immune-cell type, neutrophils – short-lived first responders that live to die in glorious

Genistein Shows Promise in Countering Vaccine-Related Heart Issues

A 2022 paper published in Cell revealed that Dr. Wu’s team identified genistein, a mild estrogen-like substance found in soybeans, as having anti-inflammatory properties. It also appears to counter damage to blood vessels and heart tissue caused by marijuana.

“Genistein is only weakly absorbed when taken orally,” Wu said. “Nobody ever overdosed on tofu.”

Wu and his team performed experiments similar to those previously conducted. They pre-treated cells, cardiac spheres, and mice (using large oral doses of genistein) to prevent the harmful effects of mRNA vaccines or a combination of CXCL10 and IFN-gamma on heart cells and tissue.

The genistein used by Wu and his colleagues was purer and more concentrated than what you’d find in typical dietary supplements.

“It’s reasonable to beleive that the mRNA-vaccine-induced inflammatory response may extend