As of: January 21, 2024, 6:32 p.m
By: Martina Lippl
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Science is racking its brains about Long Covid.
Researchers from Switzerland have now found a pattern in the blood of those affected by Long Covid.
Zurich – A corona infection can cause long-term consequences.
Some Covid patients develop Long Covid.
The symptoms are varied, ranging from headaches, exhaustion to hair loss.
Swiss researchers have now discovered a pattern in the blood of those affected by Long Covid.
This could make diagnosis and treatment easier in the future.
Swiss research team discovers protein patterns in the blood in Long Covid
As part of their study, a team of scientists from the University of Zurich examined around 6,500 proteins in the blood serum of 113 corona patients and 39 healthy people.
The researchers followed the study participants for a year.
After six months, 40 of the study participants were still suffering from Long Covid.
Blood was analyzed during the acute illness and six months later.
“Active Long Covid is shown by the protein pattern in the blood,” concluded the researchers from the University of Zurich and the University Hospital of Zurich in a press release.
A pattern emerged in the blood serum of those affected by Long Covid that, according to the researchers, is related to a dysregulation of the so-called complement system.
The complement system, as part of the innate immune system, normally helps to fight infections and remove damaged and infected body cells.
Swiss researchers were able to detect traces of Long Covid in the blood (symbolic photo).
© Christian Ohde/imago
The immune system of those affected by Long Covid cannot calm down
“In patients with Long Covid, the complement system no longer returns to its resting state, but remains activated and thus also damages healthy body cells,” explains study leader Onur Boyman, director of the Clinic for Immunology at Zurich University Hospital.
The most important findings of the study published in the journal
Science
:
Patients with Long Covid had elevated blood levels after six months for damage to various cells in the body, including red blood cells, platelets and blood vessels.
In those affected by Long Covid who recovered from Corona within six months, the blood values were normal.
With the latest findings, the Swiss researchers hope that, in addition to a better diagnosis of Long Covid, a more targeted Long Covid therapy can be developed in the future.
Meanwhile, an expert warned: Every Covid infection increases the risk of Long Covid.
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Experts dampen hope
Corona experts who were not involved in the study consider the results of the Swiss study to be valuable, especially in diagnostics.
However, they dampen expectations that diagnostic tests will be available quickly.
Further studies are still necessary.
It is too early, said Gabor Petzold from the University Hospital of Bonn to the
Science Media Center
.
“Even if the study provides a lot of evidence for new diagnostic or therapeutic approaches, immediate implementation in everyday clinical practice is currently neither sensible nor possible,” says Petzold.
The number of study participants is too small and does not do justice to the pronounced diversity of the clinical picture.
“Although there are already approved inhibitors of the complement system for other diseases, further studies must first be carried out in order to examine the findings here in larger patient groups, which then also reflect the pronounced differences in Long Covid.”
The consequences of a corona infection are sometimes shocking.
A young person from Kassel was no longer able to walk after Corona.
A mother of four has been bedridden for months.
She suffers from Long Covid.
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