Patients with a long Covid have given rise to a great deal of research and questions since 2020. But gradually, science better understands the puzzling symptoms of this virus called by health authorities 2019-nCoV when it was discovered, then Sars-Cov-2.
franceinfo: A new study has just found explanations in the blood of affected patients?
Géraldine Zamansky : It was American researchers who made public the results of extremely thorough blood analyzes of 99 patients with long Covid. Impressive results according to Dr Nicolas Barizien, member of the expert committee of the High Authority for Health, on this new pathology. Because their analyzes provide proof that it is indeed a disruption of the body’s defenses. With the main clue being the fall of a hormone called cortisol.
Dr. Barizien explained to me that this cortisol intervenes to adapt the body’s reactions to all types of stress, including that caused by the arrival of a virus. And there, it is as if the production of this hormone was “exhausted”.
But then this production would be exhausted by fighting the virus, the Sars–Those–2still present in the body of these patients?
This is one of the hypotheses of the authors of this study. Because they found other abnormalities in the blood of patients with long Covid. Some key players in our immune defenses, among our so-called killer white blood cells, also show signs of fatigue. Like during, or just following, a long fight.
And, hold on, it’s not over, this track is reinforced by the presence of a greater quantity of antibodies, sorts of specialized soldiers, intended to fight once morest the Sars–Those–2. Finally, more strangely, there were also often troops of soldiers whose target is another virus, that of Epstein Barr, which can cause herpes. So this might reflect an awakening of this virus already present in the body and therefore an additional infection.
And all these elements would explain the symptoms of the long Covid?
Especially if I add the last set of clues collected: several signs of abnormal chronic inflammation. According to Dr. Barizien, this set corresponds well to what the patients he cares for at the Foch Hospital, in the Paris region, suffer from. Inflammation in certain areas of the brain might explain their difficulty concentrating, for example.
As for the drop in the stress-regulating hormone, cortisol, this doctor had known regarding it until then, especially in exhausted athletes. The battle with the virus would have the same effect in long Covid patients. But the good news is that these discoveries should accelerate the launch of treatment protocols to tackle the various unmasked disorders. We are indeed hoping for rapid progress for all the patients concerned.
