{"id":1852,"date":"2024-04-09T15:14:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T15:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/long-covid-leaves-distinctive-signs-in-blood-which-could-be-targets-for-treatment-study-suggests\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T15:14:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T15:14:32","slug":"long-covid-leaves-distinctive-signs-in-blood-which-could-be-targets-for-treatment-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/long-covid-leaves-distinctive-signs-in-blood-which-could-be-targets-for-treatment-study-suggests\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID leaves distinctive signs in blood which could be targets for treatment, study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Long COVID leaves distinctive signs in the blood which could potentially be targeted for treatment, research suggests.<\/p>\n

Findings from the largest UK study of patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus show long COVID<\/strong> leads to ongoing inflammation which can be detected in the blood.<\/p>\n

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The analysis of more than 650 people who had been in hospital with severe COVID-19 found patients with prolonged symptoms showed evidence of their immune system being activated.<\/p>\n

How the activation happened depended on the type of symptoms they mainly had, for example fatigue or brain fog.<\/p>\n

The research, led by Imperial College London, suggests existing drugs which modulate the body’s immune system could be helpful in treating long COVID and should be investigated in future research.<\/p>\n

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Professor Peter Openshaw, from Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, said: “With one in 10 Sars-CoV-2 infections leading to long COVID and an estimated 65 million people around the world suffering from ongoing symptoms, we urgently need more research to understand this condition.”<\/p>\n

He said the study “is an important step forward and provides crucial insights into what causes long COVID”.<\/p>\n

He added: “I do think that there is a hopeful message which says that there are these biological pathways that are activated from different forms of persistent symptomatology after COVID, and people aren’t imagining it.<\/p>\n

“It’s something which is genuinely happening to them.”<\/p>\n

The study, published in the journal Nature Immunology, compared 426 people who were experiencing symptoms with long COVID – having been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 at least six months prior to the study – with 233 people who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 but who had fully recovered.<\/p>\n

Samples of blood plasma were taken and levels of proteins known to be involved in inflammation and immune system modulation were measured.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that compared to patients who had fully recovered, those with long COVID showed a pattern of immune system activation indicating inflammation of myeloid cells – which are formed in bone marrow and produce white blood cells, which respond to damage and infection – and activation of a family of immune system proteins called the complement system.<\/p>\n

Dr Felicity Liew, from Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, said: “Our findings indicate that complement activation and myeloid inflammation could be a common feature of long COVID after hospitalisation, regardless of symptom type.<\/p>\n

“It is unusual to find evidence of ongoing complement activation several months after acute infection has resolved, suggesting that long COVID symptoms are a result of active inflammation.<\/p>\n

“However, we can’t be sure that this is applicable to all types of long COVID, especially if symptoms occur after non-hospitalised infection.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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