A new study recently found that the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the blood of long COVID patients lingers up to one year from infection, although not in people who have completely recovered from COVID-19.
As indicated in a report from The Wall Street Journal, the virus causing COVID-19 can stay in some individuals' bodies for a long time. More so, many researchers think the lingering virus is a root cause of long COVID.
According to studies and researchers, the virus has also been found in tissues which include the brain, lining of the gut, and lungs.
The research findings suggest that the virus's leftover reservoir could stimulate the immune system in some people, causing complications like inflammation and blood clots, which may fuel certain symptoms of long COVID.
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The Root of Long COVID
Known as the Long COVID Research Initiative, detailed on the National Institutes of Health website, the group is run by the Mercer Island, Wash-based Polybio Research; a nonprofit focused on complex chronic inflammatory diseases.
According to microbiologist Amy Proal from PolyBio, they want to understand "what's at the root of long COVID," and they want to focus on that.
Dr. Proal, the initiative's scientific officer, has devoted her career to investigating chronic infections after developing myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome. This disease shares similar symptoms with long COVID in her 20s.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence of viral persistence in long COVID patients is new research by Harvard researchers published recently in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.
In this study, the authors detected the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a large majority of over 30 long COVID patients in the investigation. They discovered it in none of the 26 patients belonging to a control group.
Antivirals
Professor of pathology David Walt, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School and the study's lead researcher, is planning to test antivirals like Paxlovid, as detailed on the MIT Medical website, or remdesivir to find out if the drugs are helping clear COVID-19 and remove spike protein from the blood.
He explained, that it is possible that for some people, the normal period of medication is not enough for the virus to be cleared. Dr. Walt continued explaining that such cases may necessitate a "much longer exposure" to these antivirals to fully clear.
One of the goals of the research team is to look for a way for people to determine if they continue to have the virus in their bodies. They added, that there is no easy way of determining this at the moment.
Long COVID patients are experiencing such an array of long-term symptoms that scientists think there is possibly more than one cause nonetheless. Some cases, for instance, may be fueled by organ damage.
Related information about long COVID is shown on TODAY's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on COVID-19 in Science Times.
