Long-Term Cell Inflammation Discovered as Result of Mild COVID-19 Infection

A recent study on coronavirus suggests that the immune system in patients who were infected with the disease is more likely to be impacted with inflammation. The research also found several changes in metabolic functions and concluded that even mild COVID-19 illness can initiate the condition.

Inflammation and Immune Response

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Among the ongoing studies on the long-term symptoms and after-effects of the SARS-CoV-2, experts found that the immune system and the collective cells that build it could be inflamed.

This particular cell inflammation could exceed for weeks and months following the recovery from the initial coronavirus illness.

Inflammation is an internal reaction of our body whenever the immunity fights off foreign infections, viruses, and germs. This protection, however, doubles its effect in many cases of COVID-19.

When the immune response increases capacity to protect, excessive inflammation occurs in our cells, leading to self-inflicted harm towards the body functions, organs, and even the aspects responsible for maintaining the immune system.

Cases of severe COVID-19 infection commonly result in immune dysfunction, letting many of the persistent symptoms manifest longer than expected.

Long-COVID, or the presence of the long-term coronavirus symptoms, was established by previous studies to have a link with the high severe cases. In this new research, scientists presented that even mild cases can also ignite the symptoms on par with high-severity cases.

This study is just among the few that gave an idea about what happens in the immunology of humans following the contraction of mild COVID-19 illness.

The paper was led by scholars from Germany's prestigious institutes including the Technical University of Munich and the Helmholtz Center Munich. Along with them are fellow biochemistry specialists from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

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Macrophages in Long-COVID Symptom

The investigation was made possible through the help of COVID-19 history and samples from 68 individuals. Each of the participants was previously detected with mild infection. Each time during the sampling stages, their data is compared with other groups who were not diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The authors focused their analysis on the type of white blood cells responsible for the detection and elimination of foreign materials throughout the body. These cells, called macrophages, were tested through an explosion with mock signals of the infection.

The reactions from the cells were recorded alongside the specific genes that are turned active whenever the protection is initiated.

Between three to five months of observation, the macrophages in mild-COVID participants were highly active compared to the behavior of the group who were not diagnosed with the coronavirus.

In a report by EurekAlert, medical biochemistry and biophysics expert Craig Wheelock, who co-authored the study, explained that there had been an intense level of inflammation and altered metabolic expression observed in just a couple of months following the diagnosis.

Further research is needed to explain the correlation between post-COVID inflammation and other symptoms that coronavirus survivors experience. The study was published in the journal Mucosal Immunology, titled "Mild COVID-19 imprints a long-term inflammatory eicosanoid- and chemokine memory in monocyte-derived macrophages."