COVID-19 is defined as a respiratory infection, but the effects of the new coronavirus are certainly not limited to any one organ.
Dozens of recent autopsies show persistent evidence of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the body, including the lungs, heart, spleen, kidneys, liver, colon, thorax, muscles, nerves, reproductive tract, the eye, and the brain.
In a particular autopsy, traces of the new coronavirus were found in the brain of a deceased patient 230 days after they began showing symptoms.
“Our data indicate that in some patients SARS-CoV-2 can cause a systemic infection and persist in the body for months,” conclude the authors of the study, led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States.
In the past, autopsies of people who contracted COVID-19 have shown preliminary signs of multi-organ spread, with genetic remains of the virus appearing in a wide variety of tissues, organs, and fluids.
In July 2020, further autopsies showed evidence of blood clots in almost all vital organs in those who had contracted COVID-19.
New NIH research now replicates and confirms these results in greater detail than ever before.
The researchers suggest that their latest findings are the most comprehensive analysis to date on the cellular persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body.
The study involved 44 autopsies, in which the researchers carefully detected and quantified the level of SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA in 85 locations and fluids. This genetic information is indicative of where the virus might have replicated during a person’s lifetime.
From autopsies conducted between April 2020 and March 2021, the researchers found that unvaccinated older people who died from COVID-19 showed abundant signs of SARS-CoV-2 replication in a total of 79 locations. and bodily fluids.
Also, some of the changes became apparent within two weeks of the first symptoms appearing.
Interestingly, while the lungs showed the most inflammation and injury, the brain and other organs often showed no significant tissue changes “despite substantial viral load.”
The authors are not sure why. It could be, for example, that the human immune system is not as good at attacking these other places compared to the lungs.
In later stages of the recovery from COVID-19, the researchers found evidence that the lungs were less infected than at the beginning, while other places did not show as much improvement.
“Our results show that although the largest burden of SARS-CoV-2 is in respiratory tissues, the virus can spread throughout the body,” the researchers conclude.
How the virus spreads far and wide is another mystery that needs to be solved. Autopsies in the current study often did not show detectable viral remnants in blood plasma, suggesting that the pathogen may be traveling by other means.
Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 spreads and persists in the human body could reveal a lot about why some patients suffer from long-standing COVID-19.
The NIH study did not specifically experiment with long-standing COVID patients, but the results are relevant to possible treatment plans.
Antivirals, such as Paxlovid, for example, could help the human immune system clear viral cells from otherwise hard-to-reach tissues, organs and fluids.
Perhaps that, in turn, can help reduce persistent symptoms.
“We hope to replicate the data on viral persistence and study the relationship with long-term COVID,” says one of the authors, Stephen Hewitt, of the National Cancer Institute.
“In less than a year we have around 85 cases, and we are working to expand these efforts.”
The study was published in Nature.
Source: news.google.com