COVID-19 'Ghosts' Rooted in the Gut Breed Long COVID

Scientists are studying whether long COVID could be linked to viral fragments called ‘ghosts’ found in the gut months after initial infection.

Long COVID could be the result of persistent infections that are hiding out in niches other than the respiratory tract, like the GI tract, according to the journal Med.

What is Long COVID?

Long COVID is named for cases where symptoms from COVID-19 linger for months or even years after the initial infection clears up

, and is something of a mystery. It seems to occur in somewhere between one in 10 and one in three cases, and can sometimes be completely debilitating, but what causes it, and who is most susceptible, remains unknown.

COVID-19 is looked upon as a respiratory illness that attacks the lungs. The main symptom was a cough but among all the hacking coughs and fevers, some people had fewer lung-related symptoms. For instance, diarrhea or needing to throw up.

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‘The gastrointestinal symptoms of COVID-19 indicate your risk of developing long COVID in the future.’

While much of the world concentrated on coping with what they assumed was a purely respiratory disease, a few scientists started quietly investigating how COVID interacts with the gut.

This new study is one of growing evidence that suggests it may be caused, at least in part, by fragments of the original infection sticking around in the gut, which researchers called COVID “ghosts.”

“We found that people who had cleared their respiratory infection meaning they were no longer testing positive for COVID-19 in their respiratory tract, were continuing to shed SARS-CoV-2 RNA in their feces,” explained Ami Bhatt, an associate professor at Stanford University.

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The presence of the COVID-19 virus in feces was mostly seen in people who had a high incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms.

Gut Feelings to be Blamed for Long COVID

COVID-19 virus might be hanging out in the gut or even other tissues for a longer period than it sticks around in the respiratory tract

, and there it can continue to kind of tickle our immune system and induce some of these long-term consequences.

This isn’t the only research that has linked Long COVID to the gut. One early hint came in 2021, when a study published in Nature reported viral particles in the gastrointestinal linings of COVID-19 patients four months later.

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Another recent study also found COVID-19 virus RNA in the gut mucosa of irritable bowel syndrome patients as much as seven months after the initial COVID infection was confirmed.

While the results are encouraging, the gut is increasingly being recognized as a crucial part of the immune system. At the same time, researchers involved caution that far more study is needed before a link can be confirmed. Additional studies still need to be done.

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Source-Medindia