"In research that analyzed blood samples from more than 140 participants, scientists led by Dan H. Barouch tracked immunologic and inflammatory responses over time in patients who developed long COVID as compared with patients who fully recovered from COVID. The team found key differences in patients who developed long COVID and evidence of persistent chronic inflammation long after acute illness."
""There is currently no specific treatment for long COVID, which affects millions of people in the United States, and most clinical trials to date for this condition have focused on testing antiviral agents to clear potential residual virus," said Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel and the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "In contrast, our findings show that long COVID in humans is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways, which defines new potential therapeutic targets.""
Blood samples from over 140 participants revealed that people with long COVID exhibit persistent chronic inflammation long after the acute phase. Integrated analyses of immune responses, viral markers, transcriptomics, and proteomics identified distinct immunologic and inflammatory signatures in those with prolonged symptoms compared with fully recovered patients. Most clinical trials have prioritized antiviral agents to clear residual virus, but the inflammatory profile indicates ongoing activation of chronic inflammatory pathways. These inflammatory pathways present new potential therapeutic targets to address prolonged symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, and exercise intolerance affecting millions.
Read at Harvard Gazette
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]