study sheds new light

This form of the disease still keeps many mysteries, but a study brings interesting leads.

If we all know the term “long covid“, the symptoms that some patients experience for sometimes months is still unknown.

But the review Nature has just published the results of a study conducted by researchers from Inserm, Université Paris-Cité and the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. And it sheds new light on this phenomenon.

The immune system studied

The signs of long covid, let’s remember them: shortness of breath, muscle pain, concentration made complicated, fatigue…

The scientists wanted to find out more by studying the immune system of 164 people six months after their infection.

Identification of markers in the blood

What did the researchers observe? First, a link between the degree of severity of the virus and the risk of having a long version of covid.

Markers have also been discovered, and some of them, in the blood, are present “six months after infection in 70 to 80% of people with long covid while these same blood markers were rare in subjects who did not develop long form”says Inserm.

What are these markers? Among others, proteins, interferons, and antibodies specific to the virus causing the disease.

What is the point of this discovery?

Jérôme Estaquier, research director at Inserm and Paris-Cité University and co-author of the study, believes that these markers are the demonstration “that the coronavirus is always present in the body, in particular in the lining of the intestine”.

It will certainly require further studies in this direction, but a new way of diagnosing or even the development of a treatment could result from it in the future.