2024-01-20 10:17:06
Researchers from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) say they have noted, in the blood of “long covid” patients, abnormalities in proteins involved in the reaction of the immune system. The scientists behind the discovery explain it in a journal article Science published Friday January 19. This failure of our defenses had never been highlighted until now and it might now help with detection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 10 and 20% of people who have contracted the Sars-CoV-2 virus, responsible for covid, suffer or have suffered from a long form of covid.
A dysfunction of part of the immune system
The definition of long covid is as broad as the symptoms it causes: fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, memory loss. Any symptom that lasts more than two months and appears three months following contamination, without any explanation, can be linked to long-term covid. By analyzing the blood of around a hundred patients, Swiss researchers from the University of Zurich revealed a dysfunction in part of the immune system, the complement system.
“The main function of the complement system is to attack viruses,Bacteria and other microbes that infect our body*,* explains Onur Boyman, professor of immunology at the University of Zurich. The problem is that in people with long covid, it remains active even when there is no longer any virus. And so it attacks other healthy cells, in the lungs, the intestines or even the brain. The explanation might explain the great diversity of symptoms linked to long covid.
A still very complex screening
To reach their conclusion, Zurich researchers observed the proteins present in the serum of 152 people, 113 of whom were infected with Covid-19. After six months, 40 of the patients showed symptoms of long covid.
It remains to find a treatment to prevent our body from fighting once morest a phantom infection. It also remains to develop tests. “We saw during the pandemic that when you put money on the table, things move very quickly and we can have diagnoses in a fairly short time” he hopes.
Not everyone will be able to get tested. The method used is still too complex for that. But it might at least make things clearer for patients who do not always know whether they are suffering from long-term covid or another pathology.
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