The study published in the specialized journal Alergy indicates “a significant reduction of immune cells“in the blood.”
The results of the new study by Austrian scientists reveal that the immune system of patients who have recovered from a Covid-19 infection may have stopped responding optimally.
The effects of an infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus confirmed in the study were observed even in ccases of mild courses of the diseaseand will be the basis for new research on persistent covid, long covid.
Read more: These are the months in which there will be more cases of covid-19 in Guatemala
“Our results provide a possible explanation for why certain long-term consequences of covid-19 might be related to damage to the cellular immune system” caused by the virus, says Professor Winfried Pickl, director of the research team, in the note.
More specifically, the cause would lie in the “apparently reduced maturation and/or emigration of immune cells from the bone marrow,” he adds.
“Even following mild courses of the disease, we found a significant reduction of immune cells in the blood,” the immunologist emphasizes.
The study, initiated in 2020, examined relevant immune parameters in 133 people who had recovered from Covid-19 and 98 people who had not had the infection.
Read also: Is there cause for concern regarding receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine?
The number and composition of various immune cells, as well as growth factors in the blood, which play a key role in the regulation of cell growthwere analyzed in the patients recovered 10 weeks and 10 months following contracting the disease.
Since no coronavirus vaccines were available at the start of the work, all participants were unvaccinated.
“Not entirely unexpectedly, 10 weeks following infection, recovered patients showed clear signs of immune activation both in T cells and B cells (white blood cells), in contrast to healthy test subjects,” Pickl notes.
It was the samples from patients taken 10 months following the illness that surprised scientists, as they showed “a significant reduction in immune cells.”
#study #reveals #coronavirus #impairs #immune #system #long #term
