A small but significant study led by Steven Z. Josefowicz, Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medicine has found that severe cases of COVID-19 can lead to persistent changes in the innate immune system.
These findings may explain why COVID-19 has a multi-organ impact and why some individuals with long COVID experience elevated levels of systemic inflammation.
Innovative Technique
The study analyzed blood samples from 38 people recovering from severe COVID-19, 19 healthy individuals, and others recovering from severe illnesses other than COVID-19.
The researchers also introduced a new technique for collecting and studying rare blood-forming stem cells directly from blood samples, eliminating the need for bone marrow extraction.
Key Findings
Stem Cell Changes: Researchers discovered alterations in gene-expression instructions in the blood-forming stem cells from people recovering from severe COVID-19. These changes were hereditary, passed on to the daughter cells.
Monocyte Production: These altered stem cells led to increased production of immune cells called monocytes.
Inflammatory Cytokines: The monocytes derived from people recovering from severe COVID-19 produced more inflammatory cytokines than those from healthy individuals or those with non-COVID-19 illnesses.
Long-Term Impact: These changes were observed up to a year after the initial illness, although the small sample size didn’t allow for a direct association with health outcomes.
IL-6: A Key Player
The researchers suspected that an inflammatory cytokine called IL-6 could be central to these changes.
Experiments in mice and humans showed that blocking IL-6 at the early stages of illness reduced the altered gene expression in stem cells and the production of monocytes and inflammatory cytokines during recovery. This also resulted in less organ damage in mice.
Implications
Understanding Long COVID: The study suggests that the changes induced by SARS-CoV-2 in the innate immune system might be long-lasting, explaining the persistence of symptoms in long COVID.
Therapeutic Avenues: The insights about the role of IL-6 could lead to new therapeutic approaches for managing long-term inflammation in severe COVID-19 cases.
Importance of Vaccination: The findings emphasize the critical role of COVID-19 vaccination in preventing severe disease and its long-term consequences.
Conclusion
While more extensive studies are needed, these early findings provide crucial insights into the ways COVID-19 impacts the immune system and why its consequences can be so severe and long-lasting.
The study also potentially paves the way for new treatments targeting the mechanisms that lead to chronic symptoms and inflammation.
If you care about health please read studies that vitamin D can help reduce inflammation, and vitamin K could lower your heart disease risk by a third.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about new way to halt excessive inflammation, and results showing foods that could cause inflammation.
The study was published in Cell.
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