Tag Archives: “long COVID”

Antibody protection after mild COVID-19 may not last; an estimated 100 million people have had long COVID

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Antibody protection from mild COVID-19 may not last

Nearly everyone who had a mild case of COVID-19 still has antibodies to the coronavirus a year later, but that might not protect them from new variants, a small study suggests. Among 43 Australians who dealt with mild COVID-19 early in the pandemic, 90% still had antibodies 12 months later. But only 51.2% had antibodies that showed “neutralizing activity” against the original version of the virus and only 44.2% had antibodies that could neutralize the early Alpha variant, the research team at the University of Adelaide reported on Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Neutralizing antibodies against the now dominant and highly transmissible Delta variant were seen in only 16.2%, with 11.6% against Gamma, and against Beta in only 4.6%. Those who had mild COVID-19 “are vulnerable to infection with circulating and newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants 12 months after recovery,” the researchers said. The findings “reinforce the potential benefit” of tailoring vaccine boosters to currently circulating variants, similar to how annual flu vaccines are tailored to current influenza strains, they said.

100 million have or had long COVID, study estimates

More than 40% of COVID-19 survivors worldwide have had lingering after-effects of the illness, researchers from the University of Michigan estimate, based on their review of 40 earlier studies from 17 countries that looked at patients’ experiences with so-called long COVID, defined as new or persistent symptoms at four or more weeks after infection. The prevalence rises to 57% among survivors who required hospitalization, the researchers reported on Tuesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The rate was 49% among female survivors and 37% among males, they said. The estimated long COVID rate was 49% in Asia, 44% in Europe and 30% in North America. Among the most common problems, fatigue was estimated to affect 23%, while shortness of breath, joint pain and memory problems each affected 13%. The study likely did not capture all cases of long COVID, the researchers say. “Based on a WHO (World Health Organization) estimate of 237 million worldwide COVID-19 infections, this global pooled … estimate indicates that around 100 million individuals currently experience or have previously experienced long-term health-related consequences of COVID-19.” These health effects, they warn, “can exert marked stress on the healthcare system.”

Virus’ effect on blood-thinning molecules causes clots

Dangerous blood clots often seen in patients with COVID-19 happen at least in part because the spike on the virus attaches itself to molecules in the blood that play key roles in preventing clotting, thereby inactivating them, new research shows. With the virus bound to them, “these molecules (heparan sulfate/heparin) can’t do their usual anticoagulant activities,” explained Jingyu Yan of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China. Blood clots associated with COVID-19 often damage the lungs and other organs and can cause heart attacks and strokes. The excessive clotting has been attributed to the high levels of inflammation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 infection. It has not been clear until now that the virus itself also has a direct effect, Yan’s team reported in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. Fortunately, they point out, the now common practice of giving COVID-19 patients blood-thinning drugs can “significantly reduce” the clotting caused by the virus.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Breakthrough infections can lead to long COVID; genes may explain critical illness in young, healthy adults

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Breakthrough infections can lead to long COVID

The persistent syndrome of COVID-19 after-effects known as long COVID can develop after “breakthrough” infections in vaccinated people, a new study shows. Researchers at Oxford University in the UK reviewed data on nearly 20,000 U.S. COVID-19 patients, half of whom had been vaccinated. Compared to unvaccinated patients, people who were fully vaccinated – and in particular those under age 60 – did have lower risks for death and serious complications such as lung failure, need for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission, life-threatening blood clots, seizures, and psychosis. “On the other hand,” the research team reported on medRxiv on Thursday ahead of peer review, “previous vaccination does not appear to protect against several previously documented outcomes of COVID-19 such as long COVID features, arrhythmia, joint pain, Type 2 diabetes, liver disease, sleep disorders, and mood and anxiety disorders.” The absence of protection from long COVID “is concerning given the high incidence and burden” of these lasting problems, they added.

Genes may explain critical COVID-19 in young, healthy adults

A gene that helps the coronavirus reproduce itself might contribute to life-threatening COVID-19 in young, otherwise healthy people, new findings suggest. French researchers studied 72 hospitalized COVID-19 patients under age 50, including 47 who were critically ill and 25 with non-critical illness, plus 22 healthy volunteers. None of the patients had any of the chronic conditions known to increase the risk for poor outcomes, such as heart disease or diabetes. Genetic analysis identified five genes that were significantly “upregulated,” or more active, in the patients with critical illness, of which the most frequent was a gene called ADAM9. As reported on Thursday in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers saw the same genetic pattern in a separate group of 154 COVID-19 patients, including 81 who were critically ill. Later, in lab experiments using human lung cells infected with the coronavirus, they found that blocking the activity of the ADAM9 gene made it harder for the virus to make copies of itself. More research is needed, they say, to confirm their findings and to determine whether it would be worthwhile to develop treatments to block ADAM9.

Pregnant women get sub-par benefit from first vaccine dose

Women who get the first dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding need the second dose to bring their protective benefit up to normal, according to a new study. Researchers compared immune responses to the mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc or Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE in 84 pregnant women, 31 breastfeeding women, and 16 similarly-aged nonpregnant, non-lactating women. After the first shot, everyone developed antibodies against the coronavirus. But antibody levels were lower in women who were pregnant or breastfeeding. Other features of the immune response also lagged in the pregnant and lactating women after the first dose but “caught up” to normal after the second shot. In a report published on Thursday in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers explained that in order for a mother’s body to nurture the fetus, “substantial immunological changes occur throughout pregnancy.” The new findings suggest that pregnancy alters the immune system’s response to the vaccine. Given that pregnant women are highly vulnerable to complications from COVID-19, “there is a critical need” for them to get the second dose on schedule, the researchers said.

Coronavirus found to infect fat cells

Obesity is a known risk factor for more severe COVID-19. One likely reason may be that the virus can infect fat cells, researchers have discovered. In lab experiments and in autopsies of patients who died of COVID-19, they found the virus infects two types of cells found in fat tissue: mature fat cells, called adipocytes, and immune cells called macrophages. “Infection of fat cells led to a marked inflammatory response, consistent with the type of immune response that is seen in severe cases of COVID-19,” said Dr. Catherine Blish of Stanford University School of Medicine, whose team reported the findings on bioRxiv on Wednesday ahead of peer review. “These data suggest that infection of fat tissue and its associated inflammatory response may be one of the reasons why obese individuals do so poorly when infected with SARS-CoV-2,” she said.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

New kidney problems linked to ‘long COVID;’ loss of smell may be followed by other smell distortions

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

‘Long COVID’ tied to higher kidney risks

COVID-19 symptoms that persist long after infection, known as “long COVID,” has been tied to a higher risk for new kidney problems, according to a new study. Analyzing data on more than 1.7 million U.S. veterans, including nearly 90,000 COVID-19 survivors with symptoms lasting at least 30 days, researchers found the “long haulers” were at higher risk for new kidney problems compared to people who had not been infected with the coronavirus. This was true even when survivors had not been hospitalized, although declines in kidney function were “more profound” with more severe infection, they reported on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Roughly 5% of the Long COVID group developed at least a 30% drop in a critical measure of kidney function known as the estimated glomerular filtration rate, or eGFR. Overall, people with long COVID were 25% more likely than uninfected people to develop a 30% decline in eGFR, with higher risks in survivors of more severe disease. While kidney function often declines with age, the damage in these patients “was in excess” of what happens with normal aging, study coauthor Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, of Washington University in St. Louis, said in a statement. “Our findings emphasize the critical importance of paying attention to kidney function and disease in caring for patients who have had COVID-19,” he said.

Loss of smell may be followed by smell distortions

Many people who lose their sense of smell due to COVID-19 eventually regain it, but some survivors later report smell distortions and unexplained smells, a new study found. Researchers analyzed survey responses from 1,468 individuals who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between April and September 2020 and had suffered loss of smell and taste at the start of their illness. Early on, about 10% also reported smell distortions, or parosmia, and unexplained smells, known as phantosmia. At an average of six to seven months after becoming ill and first reporting loss of smell, roughly 60% of women and 48% of men had regained less than 80% of their pre-illness smell ability, and rates of smell distortions and imaginary smells had increased, the researchers reported on Tuesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Roughly 47% reported parosmia, saying, for example, “some things now smell like chemicals.” About 25% reported phantosmia. “Sometimes I can smell burning but no one else around me can,” one respondent reported. Persistent smell problems were seen more often in survivors with more symptoms overall, “suggesting it may be a key marker of long-COVID,” the authors said.

Vaccines induce antibodies despite cancer, immunocompromise

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines trigger protective immune responses in most cancer patients with solid tumors and in many people taking immunosuppressive medications, two small studies suggest. In Israel, researchers found that six months after the second dose of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, 79% of 154 patients with solid tumors had developed antibodies, as had 84% of 135 similar people without cancer, a difference that was not deemed statistically significant. Antibody levels were similar in the two groups, the researchers reported on Thursday in Cancer Discovery. Separately, U.S. researchers studied 133 adults taking immunosuppressive medications for chronic inflammatory diseases and 53 healthy volunteers. At three weeks after the second shot of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna Inc, nearly 90% of the immunosuppressed participants had developed antibodies, although many had lower responses compared to the control group, according to a report published on Tuesday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Antibody therapy cuts hospitalization rates

People with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were treated with a monoclonal antibody “cocktail” had lower hospitalization rates than similar people who did not receive the treatment, researchers reported on Monday in EClinicalMedicine. They looked at nearly 1,400 such patients, roughly half of whom had received Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc’s combination monoclonal antibody therapy. Among those who received the treatment, about 45% were older than 65, and many had high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, lung disease and other risk factors. By four weeks after the treatment, 1.6% of them had been hospitalized, compared to 4.8% of patients not treated with the monoclonal antibodies. The study was not randomized and cannot prove the treatment caused the better outcomes. However, it “suggests that when patients who are at high risk due to a range of comorbidities contract a mild or moderate case of COVID-19, this combination of monoclonal injections gives them a chance of a non-hospitalized recovery,” study leader Dr. Raymund Razonable of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in a statement.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Kids with COVID-19 often have no symptoms; smoking linked to vaccine response

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – Here is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Asymptomatic COVID-19 very common

Roughly one-third of people with COVID-19 have no symptoms, according to a review of data from more than 350 studies published through April 2021. Asymptomatic infections were more common in children than in the elderly or in people without preexisting medical conditions, said Pratha Sah of Yale School of Public Health, who led the analysis published on Tuesday in PNAS. Her team estimates that 46.7% of infected children have no symptoms, she said. “This is especially concerning because settings with close, extensive contact among large groups of younger individuals are particularly susceptible to super spreader events of COVID-19, which may go undetected” if school authorities only watch for symptoms. Senior author Alison Galvani, also of the Yale School of Public Health, noted that asymptomatic individuals can still pass the virus to others, which makes mask wearing important as schools reopen.

Weight-loss surgery tied to better COVID-19 outcomes

Surgery for obesity may have a protective effect against poor outcomes from COVID-19, data from one New York City hospital suggest. Doctors there studied 620 patients with COVID-19, including 130 who had previously undergone so-called bariatric operations to treat their obesity, and a control group of 496 patients with obesity of similar age and gender who were eligible for these surgeries but had not undergone them. Compared to the control group, the patients who had undergone the bariatric procedures – gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy – were less likely to be hospitalized, less likely to need a mechanical ventilator for breathing, and less likely to die in the hospital, even though many of them were still obese. They were also released from hospital faster, and those who were admitted to the ICU spent fewer days there, according to a report published on Sunday in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. “Patients with obesity have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with a higher risk of severe disease and death,” the authors pointed out. They added that while the study cannot prove that bariatric surgery caused better outcomes, the results suggest it might be “a protective factor against severe COVID-19 … in the high-risk population with obesity.”

Smoking may impair mRNA vaccine response

Current smokers may be at risk for lower immune responses to some COVID-19 vaccines, Japanese researchers say, though more research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. In a preliminary study of 378 healthcare workers, ages 32 to 54, the researchers analyzed levels of protective antibodies induced by the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, using blood samples obtained roughly three months after the second dose. As has been found in previous studies, older participants had lower antibody levels. After taking age into account, the only risk factors for lower antibody levels were male sex and smoking – and the gender difference might be because smoking rates were twice as high in men as in women, the researchers speculate. In a paper posted on Saturday on medRxiv ahead of peer review, they report that antibody levels were higher in former smokers than in current smokers, which “suggests smoking cessation will reduce the risk of a lower antibody titer.”

Microscopic lung damage may continue in ‘long COVID’

The persistent breathing issues that plague some COVID-19 survivors, known as “long COVID,” may be due to microscopic processes that continue to damage lungs even after the acute infection is over, new research suggests. The researchers studied blood and airway cells from 38 patients who still had breathing problems at least three months after they were discharged from hospital. Compared to healthy volunteers, the airways of these COVID-19 survivors had higher numbers of immune cells that defend against viruses but can also cause damage. They also had higher levels of proteins that are present when cell death and tissue repair are happening. The findings, which still need confirmation in larger studies, suggest some patients have ongoing disturbances in their immune cells and damage to cells that line the airways, even several months after their initial infection and discharge from hospital, said James Harker of Imperial College London, coauthor of a report published on medRxiv ahead of peer review. “In a small group of patients, we were able to show that the abnormalities may in fact resolve with more time,” Harker said.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

Debilitating ‘long-COVID’ may have severe health, social impacts: WHO

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) – Thousands of COVID-19 patients continue to suffer serious, debilitating and lingering symptoms many months after their initial bout of infection, with major social, health and economic consequences, European health experts said on Thursday.

Publishing a World Health Organization-led guidance report on the condition, often referred to as “long COVID” or “post-COVID syndrome,” experts said around one in 10 COVID-19 patients are still unwell 12 weeks after their acute infection, and many suffer symptoms for far longer.

“This is a condition that can be extremely debilitating. Those suffering from it describe a varying combination of overlapping symptoms… (including) chest and muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath … brain fog (and) many others,” said Martin McKee, a professor at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies who led the report.

Hans Kluge, the WHO’s European regional director, said long-COVID could have “severe social, economic, health and occupational consequences.”

“The burden is real and it is significant,” he said.

He urged health authorities to listen to patients’ concerns, take them seriously, and establish services to help them.

Growing evidence from around the world points to many thousands of people experiencing long-COVID. The condition appears not to be linked to whether a patient had a severe or mild infection.

An initial report by Britain’s National Institute for Health Research last year suggested long-COVID may be not one condition, but multiple syndromes causing a rollercoaster of symptoms affecting the body and mind.

Kluge noted that as with any new disease, much remains unknown about COVID-19.

“We need to listen and … understand. The sufferers of post-COVID conditions need to be heard if we are to understand the long-term consequences and recovery from COVID-19,” he said. “This is a clear priority for WHO (and) it should be for every health authority.”