2023-11-01 14:55:46
Researchers now have a new piece to try to solve the puzzle of long Covid: that of the mycobiota, the billions of fungi which colonize our body and which are found in particular in the intestines.
American researchers thus noted that patients suffering from a severe form of Covid presented an imbalance in their mycobiota – the less well-known (and less well-studied) little cousin of the microbiota – when compared to healthy subjects. . Patients with severe Covid have also developed a dangerous fungal infection in the lungs. “The link is clearly demonstrated, it’s a very elegant study and it’s one of the first I’ve seen in this context,” commented Dr. Emilia Liana Falcone, who directs the post-COVID research clinic. -19 from the Montreal Clinical Research Institute and whose team is working on the detection of fungal elements in the blood of patients suffering from Covid.
The authors of the study notably measured approximately four times higher levels of antibodies in the patients’ blood once morest three species of fungi commonly found in the intestine, suggesting that these fungi were present in very high levels. large quantities. One such fungus is Candida albicans, the presence of which has previously been associated with activation of the immune system and the presence of inflammation. Mice injected with both SARS-CoV-2 and C.albicans from patients suffering from severe Covid showed a greater inflammatory response than mice infected only with the Covid virus. . Administering an antifungal drug to early mice proved helpful. This might one day be the case for humans too.
“(The researchers) showed that they were capable of recreating the same phenomenon as when mice had elements of the human mycobiome in their body, that we were capable of causing the same immune changes,” emphasized Dr. Falcone. When we can really see causality in a mouse model, it really gives us the desire to investigate the information in more depth. » Long Covid, recalled Doctor Falcone, is a disease which can be very “heterogeneous”; a study like this might possibly make it possible to better characterize patients, and therefore offer them the most appropriate treatment for their condition. The authors of the new study finally found that patients affected by severe Covid continued to present high levels of antibodies once morest C.albicans even following their symptoms had disappeared, sometimes up to a year later.
This might mean that changes to the mycobiota during Covid contribute to the inflammation that has been associated with long Covid. The findings of this study were published by the scientific journal Nature Immunology.
Photo credit: Archives.
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