Long Covid Weekly: June 25th - July 3rd
Thumbnail Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
[This was retrospectively posted from Reddit]
Here is this week's version of Long Covid Weekly News. First a couple of notes and announcements.
Thanks to everyone who had a chance to read and upvote the post from last week. I did not expect to get so many upvotes. It shows me that people want to stay informed on what is happening in the world of Long Covid.
Also, I am going to start posting these every Sunday. And starting next week I will be posting these from a different account, dedicated to these posts.
Last week I mentioned that I would be collecting feedback on how to improve the weekly piece. Thanks to everyone who gave the time for feedback. Here is some of the feedback collected with my response below.
Spend more time reviewing TL;DRs
Only one person is writing these right now but for future iterations,I will be relying on others to help review these to make sure they make sense from a grammatical and content perspective
Add additional content to the newsletter. One person suggested we added recovery stories
I think that these would be useful but want to figure out the best way to do this. I will think about the best way to share stories like these in future iterations.
Make this post a newsletter.
I think that this is a good idea for a couple of reasons. 1) Newsletters are more accessible for those outside of Reddit. 2) Formatting in a newsletter will be a lot easier. It will take a couple of weeks to get a site + newsletter up and running but that is definitely in the works. These posts will still be available on Reddit & the newsletter would be free.
Providing tools to input articles or research
I also think this is a good idea. I am bound to miss a lot of pertinent information. Again need to think about the best way to do this.
Without further ado here is the news from the past week!
Research
TlL;DR: Note: Not directly related to Long Covid but a subset of people with Long Covid are diagnosed with ME/CFS so this article has some overlap. Basically, these researchers identified that me/cfs patients had stronger antibody responses to two EBV-related antigens. They were able to create a relatively strong predictive model that could distinguish between Healthy controls and ME/CFS patients.
TL;DR: This study investigates the hypothesis that a possible reason for Long Covid is drive by a disruption in NAD+ metabolome. For those unaware, NAD+ is a coenzyme that is very important for metabolism; among its many functions it takes an active part in the part of the immune system responsible for attending to viral infections. Reduced levels of NAD+ have been shown to cause increased disease susceptibility. Covid driven disruption of this system leads to mitochondrial disruption.
Cytokine Profiles Associated With Acute COVID-19 and Long COVID-19 Syndrome
TL;DR: "High serum levels of IL-17 and IL-2 and low levels of IL-4 and IL-10 appear to constitute a cytokine profile of long COVID-19, and these markers are potential targets for COVID-19 treatment and prevention strategies."
Evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection in seronegative patients with long COVID
Tl:DR: Basically, a large portion of people with Long Covid who did not have antibodies to covid have covid 19 t-cell responses. This is important because it shows even without antibodies it is possible to have Long Covid. In the past, some people denied the legitimacy of Long Covid by saying that without antibodies there is no way someone could have Long Covid.
Media
TL;DR Dave Nabarro, who is an envoy for WHO, has noted that the more often a person gets Covid, the higher the chance they will get unlucky & get Long Covid. Personal Note: Good to see WHO officials acknowledging the risk of Long Covid.
Over half of people with Long Covid for two years are declared unfit to work
TL;DR: “Some 85% of workers who suffered from the long-term effects of a Covid infection two years ago are now receiving disability benefits. Over half of this group, some 62%, can no longer work at all.” Pretty discouraging news.
The innovative lung-imaging technique shows the cause of long COVID symptoms
TL;DR: Researchers in Canada may have found a possible cause for Long Covid symptoms. They found, using a special type of MRI, that there may be abnormalities in the way oxygen is exchanged from the Lungs to Red Blood cells.
UMass Chan News UMass Chan researchers study the link between the oral microbiome and long COVID
TL;DR: Researchers are beginning to investigate whether there is a connection between a pro-inflammatory response from the oral microbiome and neurological long-covid symptoms. The researcher said if they can identify the microbiome out of balance, there might be a treatment window during the acute infection
For last week’s post please see here.