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Hi everyone,
I am sorry for the lack of newsletter last week. I was not feeling well & thought it was for the best if I took the week off. I will try my best to prevent these from happening or do a better job communicating in advanced before these happen. I will be continuing to do the newsletter once a week.
This newsletter is more jam-packed than usual, looking to summarize two weeks of research. Without further ado, here is this week’s newsletter!
Research
TL;DR:
‘Here, we profiled plasma of 181 individuals from the cohort study for digital health research in Germany (DigiHero) including individuals after mild to moderate COVID-19 with or without PASC and uninfected controls. We focused on soluble factors related to monocyte/macrophage biology and on circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike (S1) protein as potential biomarker for persistent viral reservoirs.’
‘We observed markedly increased plasma levels of IL-5, IL-9, IL-17F, IL-18, IL-22, IL-23, IL-33, CCL2/MCP-1 and sCD163 but only marginally increased levels for sCD206/sMMR in post-COVID-19 disease phases as compared to individuals who never had COVID-19 (Figure 2). The mean levels of IL-5, IL-9, IL-17F, IL-22, IL-23 and IL-33 tended towards higher values in individuals with ongoing PASC as compared to individuals who never reported PASC, while this trend was reversed for IL-18 and CCL2/MCP-1’
‘Around 35% of individuals with prior COVID-19 but no PASC showed measurable levels of circulating S1 protein (Figure 5A). In the ongoing PASC group, circulating S1 was detected in around 64% of individuals (Figure 5A). This group also showed numerically higher circulating S1 levels as compared to individuals without PASC (Figure 5B).’
TL;DR:
‘In the study group, we observed statistically significant differences between scores in the pre- and post-treatment evaluations for the forward digit span, backward digit span, RAVLT-learning, RAVLT-recall, RAVLT-recognition, verbal fluency, HADS-anxiety, and HADS-depression.‘
‘Regarding the follow-up evaluation (performed 6-7 months after completing the rehabilitation programme), the study group showed statistically significant differences between scores on the post-treatment evaluation and the follow-up evaluation in the forward digit span (z = –2.987; P = .003; r = 0.25) and the RAVLT-recognition (z = –2.985; P = .003; r = 0.25). In both cases, performance was poorer in the follow-up evaluation than in the post-treatment evaluation.‘
!!must read
TL;DR:
‘We evaluated serum ferritin and IL-6 levels of our high and low responder cohorts and excluded other samples from the analysis. There were no significant differences between long COVID patients and controls in their serum ferritin concentrations. The IL-6 concentrations between high responder long COVID patients and healthy controls were significantly different (see Table 1)’
‘The current proteomics analysis of the content of the fibrin amyloid (plasma protein) microclots we found in our samples, identified increased or decreased levels of inflammatory molecules related to cellular function, coagulation, and lipid metabolism, as well as antibodies trapped inside these microclots‘
‘Our findings that microclots contain and entrap numerous inflammatory molecules, can immediately explain the reasons why traditional pathology tests such as a CRP or full blood count do not find many of the insoluble inflammatory molecules that are and may directly be involved in the disease presentation, pathophysiology and progression‘
TL;DR:
‘indicated that the vaccinated group had a lower risk of developing long COVID compared with the unvaccinated group’
‘For the number of doses, the protective effect of vaccination on long COVID was only found in the population vaccinated with two doses. For age, a protective effect was not found in either subgroup. For vaccination time, vaccination reduced the risk of developing long COVID in both the “before SARS-CoV-2 infection/COVID-19” subgroup and “after SARS-CoV-2 infection/COVID-19” subgroup.’
‘In this study, the protective effect of COVID-19 vaccines on long COVID symptoms could only be found in cognitive dysfunction/symptoms, kidney diseases/problems, myalgia, and sleeping disorders/problems sleeping. The pooled effect values of the other symptoms were negative.’
Long-term effects of COVID-19 on cancer patients: the experience from Guy's Cancer Centre
TL;DR:
‘The authors conducted a telephone survey on the long-term symptoms of cancer patients from Guy's Cancer Centre. They compared patients whose symptoms occurred/got worse over 4 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis (classified as long COVID) with patients who did not develop symptoms or whose symptoms occurred/got worse in the first 4 weeks after diagnosis’
‘Compared with the no long COVID group, the cancer types that had the highest rate of long COVID-19 were breast (17.1%; n = 7 vs 5.1%; n = 2), lung (14.6%; n = 6 vs 2.6%; n = 1) and CNS (9.9%; n = 4 vs 2.6%; n = 1) cancers.’
‘<ore patients with long COVID were inpatients at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis compared with those without long COVID (59%; n = 23 vs 38.5%; n = 15). Moreover, 25.6% (n = 10) of patients who developed long COVID required oxygen therapy, compared with 15.4% (n = 6) of patients who did not develop long COVID.‘
Circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies in COVID-19 survivors predict long-COVID symptoms
!Note: Could not get access to the full article
TL;DR:
‘A rapid assessment line immunoassay was used to measure circulating levels of ANA/ENAs in 106 convalescent COVID-19 patients with varying acute phase severities at 3, 6, and 12 months post-recovery.’
‘Compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n=22) and those who had other respiratory infections (n=34), patients with COVID-19 had higher detectable ANAs at 3 months post-recovery (p<0.001). The mean number of ANA autoreactivities per individual decreased from 3 to 12 months (3.99 to 1.55) with persistent positive titers associated with fatigue, dyspnea, and cough severity’
TL;DR:
‘Optical coherence tomography-angiography (OCT-A) enables non-invasive visualization of retinal peripapillary and macular capillary plexi in real time without contacting the human eye, based on temporal intravascular erythrocyte alterations. In addition, the OCT equipment is easy to handle.‘
‘Overall, the study findings showed that OCT-A-measured retinal microvascular circulation could be an objective-type biomarker for the subjectively-reported CF among PCS patients, with the human eye, as a diagnostic organ for the entire human body.‘
TL;DR: ‘In a July Axios-Ipsos poll, 17% of people said their biggest fear related to COVID-19 is the possibility of getting Long COVID, a potentially disabling condition in which symptoms linger or emerge well after an acute infection.’
‘But even with high levels of population immunity, Long COVID cases continue to pile up. By the CDC’s own estimate from June, one in five U.S. adults with a known prior case of COVID-19 had symptoms of Long COVID.’
‘“We’re in the middle of the greatest mass-disabling event in human history,” says Long COVID patient and advocate Charlie McCone. And unless people wake up to the long-term consequences of COVID-19, it is “going to continue taking folks out like fish in a barrel.”‘
Why You Should Rest—a Lot—If You Have COVID-19
TL;DR:
“Rest is incredibly important to give your body and your immune system a chance to fight off the acute infection,” says Dr. Janna Friedly, a post-COVID rehabilitation specialist at the University of Washington who recovered from Long COVID herself. “People are sort of fighting through it and thinking it’ll go away in a few days and they’ll get better, and that doesn’t really work with COVID.”
“But anecdotally, Friedly says many of the Long COVID patients she sees are working women with families who rushed to get back to normal as soon as possible. It’s hard to give one-size-fits-all guidance about how much rest is enough, but Friedly recommends anyone recovering from COVID-19 stay away from high-intensity exercise for at least a couple weeks and avoid pushing through fatigue.“
Unlike flu, COVID-19 attacks DNA in the heart: new research
TL;DR:
‘Direct research on the hearts of COVID-19 patients who have died from the disease has revealed they sustained DNA damage in a way completely unlike how influenza affects the body.‘
‘Kulasinghe said he and his colleagues found that rather than extreme inflammation which they had expected to find, inflammation signals had been suppressed in the hearts of the COVID-19 patients, while markers for DNA damage and repair were much higher than in people who had died from the flu.‘
Long COVID Has Forced a Reckoning for One of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases
!!Really good piece, my TL;DR does not do justice
TL;DR:
‘ME/CFS involves a panoply of debilitating symptoms that affect many organ systems and that get worse with exertion. The Institute of Medicine estimates that it affects 836,000 to 2.5 million people in the U.S. alone, but is so misunderstood and stigmatized that about 90 percent of people who have it have never been diagnosed‘
‘A wide variety of infections can cause ME/CFS, and SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is no different: Many cases of long COVID are effectively ME/CFS by another name. The exact number is hard to define, but past studies have shown that 5 to 27 percent of people infected by various pathogens, including Epstein-Barr virus and the original SARS, develop ME/CFS. Even if that proportion is 10 times lower for SARS-CoV-2, the number of Americans with ME/CFS would still have doubled in the past three years.‘
‘The U.S. has so few doctors who truly understand the disease and know how to treat it that when they convened in 2018 to create a formal coalition, there were only about a dozen, and the youngest was 60.‘
‘COVID long-haulers have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that acute viral infections can leave people chronically ill. Many health-care workers, political-decision makers, and influencers either know someone with long COVID or have it themselves. Even if they still don’t know about ME/CFS, their heightened awareness of post-viral illnesses is already making a difference. Mary Dimmock’s son developed ME/CFS in 2011, and before the pandemic, one doctor in 10 might take him seriously. “Now it’s the flip: Only one doctor out of 10 will be a real jerk,” Dimmock told me. “I attribute that to long COVID.”’
Hey, I just want to say you are doing such a great job with these newsletters. For me, it is exactly what I had been looking for for such a long time! And that is all because, with my Long Covid, it is too much work to do all the research to find all the articles. You are doing such a great service to the community. And if you need to take off a week for whatever reasons, then do it! Don’t overdo it. Thank you again for all your work. You are appreciated!