United States – SARS-CoV-2 can spread to different organs, including the heart and brain, in the days following infection and survive there for months, according to a new study from the National Institutes of Health.
The virus can reach almost any organ in the body, which could contribute to the persistent symptoms seen in patients with long Covid, the authors say.
This study of how the virus replicates in human cells and persists in the human body is considered one of the most detailed. It is being proofread for publication in the journal Nature.
“This is remarkably important work,” told Bloomberg News the Dr Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Veterans Health Care Clinical Epidemiology Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr Al-Aly was not involved in this study but is interested in the long-term effects of Covid-19.
“For a long time now, we have been wondering why the long Covid seems to affect so many organs”, he stressed. “This article sheds a little light on us and may help explain why a long Covid can occur even in people who have had mild or asymptomatic illness. “
In this work, NIH researchers sampled and analyzed tissue from autopsies of 44 patients who died after contracting Covid in the first year of the pandemic. They found viral particles that persisted in several parts of the body, including the heart and brain, for up to 230 days after symptoms started. It could be an infection with defective viral particles as has been observed with persistent infections in patients with measles.
“We do not yet know what the burden of chronic disease will be [liées au Covid] in the years to come ”, told Bloomberg News Raina MacIntyre, professor of international biosafety at the University of New South Wales.
“Will we see early-onset heart failure in survivors or early-onset dementia? These are unanswered questions that call for a real public health strategy to limit the spread of this virus. “
Unlike other research done from autopsies on deceased Covid-19 patients, the NIH team performed a more comprehensive post-mortem tissue collection technique, which was typically performed within the next day. the death of the patient.
Researchers also used various methods to preserve tissue to determine viral concentrations. They were able to cultivate the virus collected in several tissues in vitro, including the heart, lungs, small intestine and adrenal glands.
The virus can spread early in the course of infection and infect cells throughout the body, especially the brain.
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“Our results show that although the greatest burden of SARS-CoV-2 is in the respiratory tract and lungs, the virus can spread early in the course of infection and infect cells throughout the body, in particular the brain, ”say the study’s authors.
This article originally appeared on Medscape.com under the title Coronavirus Can Spread to Heart, Brain Days After Infection. Translated by Aude Lecrubier
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