THURSDAY, Oct. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Some people may have long COVID symptoms because the coronavirus is still active inside their bodies, a new study finds.
People with long-range long COVID symptoms were twice as likely to have SARS-CoV-2 proteins in their blood, indicating persistent infection, the researchers found.
Overall, more than 4 in 10 patients with multiple long COVID symptoms have such evidence of persistent infection, the researchers reported in the Oct. 8 issue of the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.
This could pave the way to effective treatment of long COVID in some people, said lead researcher Zoe Swank, a postdoctoral researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“If we can identify a subset of people who have persistent viral symptoms due to a reservoir of virus in the body, we could treat them with antivirals to relieve their symptoms,” Swank said in a hospital news release.
In the study, researchers analyzed more than 1,500 blood samples collected from about 700 COVID-19 patients.
Patients who reported long COVID symptoms affecting their heart, lungs, brain and muscles were twice as likely to still have coronavirus proteins circulating in their blood months after their initial infection, the researchers found.
About 43 percent of people with long COVID symptoms affecting at least three major body systems tested positive for those viral proteins, compared with just 21 percent of those without long COVID symptoms, they said. the researchers.
But that means more than half of long COVID patients do not have a persistent infection, the researchers noted.
“This finding suggests that there is likely more than one cause of long COVID,” said lead researcher David Walt, a professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “For example, another possible cause of long COVID symptoms could be that the virus damages the immune system, causing immune dysfunction to continue after the virus is cleared.”
The idea that the virus can remain in the body and continue to cause symptoms is not unique to COVID, the researchers noted.
“Other viruses are associated with similar post-acute syndromes,” Swank said, pointing to the Ebola and Zika viruses as examples.
Researchers are now conducting follow-up studies to better understand whether an ongoing infection causes some people’s long COVID symptoms.
“There is still a lot we don’t know about how this virus affects people,” said researcher Dr. David Goff, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “These types of studies are critical to helping researchers better understand the mechanisms underlying long COVID, which will help us get closer to identifying the right targets for treatment.”
More information
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more information on long COVID.
SOURCE: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, news release, October 9, 2024
