What does Long Covid do to the human body?
A new study diagnoses alarming long-term corona consequences.
However, this does not affect every infected person.
Munich / Marburg - Long Covid - it is the fear of many a person who has become infected with the insidious corona virus.
Rapid exhaustion, reduced performance, depression - several symptoms of the long-term effects of an infection have been repeatedly described and confirmed in various studies.
Long Covid: Scientists make discovery of long-term corona consequences
Another long-term corona consequence has now been determined by immunologists and virologists from Marburg, Stanford and other research institutes. The
Süddeutsche Zeitung
(behind a pay barrier) writes about it and refers to scientific articles in the journal
Nature Communications
. Accordingly, the scientists researched that (some) infected patients after a Covid 19 disease had significantly more autoantibodies than non-infected people.
A clear distinction must be made here: antibodies, protein molecules, strengthen the immune system and the immune system - for example by vaccinating against corona before infection with the virus.
Antibodies can, however, sometimes turn against the body's own tissue in a misdirected reaction, writes the
SZ
for better illustration: "They are then referred to as autoantibodies." In such cases, antibodies would attack cells and structures in one's own body.
And not only that: Necessary messenger substances of the immune system could also be partially inhibited.
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The scientists had examined almost 200 hospitalized Covid-19 patients for autoantibodies in the blood.
In more than half of the corona patients examined, they found antibodies against the body's own molecules.
In a comparison group with non-infected people, however, this was the case for 15 percent of the people examined.
The scientists therefore strongly recommend vaccinations against the coronavirus.
Because: Autoantibodies are then less likely because a vaccination would only produce antibodies against the spike protein and not against other virus components.
Long Covid: Corona long-term consequences - focus on the formation of autoantibodies
The results, however, coincide with another study. The world's largest research consortium on the coronavirus, the Covid human genetic effort (COVIDhge), recently examined over 1000 people with severe corona diseases. Ivan Tancevski about it. Autoantibodies were found mainly in men and people over 79 who were infected with corona, the doctor continued.
(pm)
