Many people who contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus—some estimates suggest more than 40% —suffer chronic effects known as Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), commonly referred to as long COVID.
PASC symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, and more.
In a new study from the Institute for Systems Biology, researchers have identified several factors that can be measured at the initial point of COVID-19 diagnosis that anticipate if a patient is likely to develop long COVID.
These “long COVID factors” are the presence of certain autoantibodies, pre-existing Type 2 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels in the blood, and Epstein-Barr virus DNA levels in the blood.
Additionally, researchers found that mild cases of COVID-19, not just severe cases, are associated with long COVID.
They also suggest that administering antivirals very early in the disease course may potentially prevent some long COVID.
In the study, researchers collected blood and swab samples from 309 COVID-19 patients.
A key finding from the study deals with viral load, which can be measured near diagnosis to predict long COVID symptoms.
They found that early blood viral measurements are strongly associated with certain long COVID symptoms that patients will develop months later.
In addition, researchers found the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)—a virus that infects 90 percent of the human population and is normally inactive in the body after infection—is reactivated early on after SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is strongly linked to future long COVID symptoms.
This may be related to immune dysregulation during COVID-19 infection.
The team also found that long COVID is anticipated by autoantibodies (which associated with autoimmune diseases like lupus) at diagnosis and that as autoantibodies increase, protective SARS-CoV-2 antibodies decrease.
This suggests a link between long COVID, autoantibodies and patients at elevated risk of re-infections.
The team says identifying these long COVID factors is a major step forward for not only understanding long COVID and potentially treating it, but also which patients are at the highest risk for the development of chronic conditions.
If you care about Covid, please read studies about the root cause of ‘long COVID’, and COVID-19 booster shots that prompt stronger, longer protection than original shots.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about vaccines that may not prevent severe COVID-19 in these people, and results showing this drug can offer much-needed COVID-19 protection.
The study is published in Cell. One author of the study is Dr. Jim Heath.
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