Study finds no widespread brain inflammation in long COVID

Researchers in Finland have found no evidence of widespread brain inflammation among people with long COVID. The findings instead link more severe symptoms to increased activity in brain regions involved in emotion and memory.

A team at the University of Turku examined 14 people with long COVID using PET and MRI scans. They compared results with scans from 11 healthy volunteers and 13 patients with multiple sclerosis. No meaningful differences in brain inflammation markers appeared between the long COVID group and healthy controls. The long COVID patients also showed far less white matter inflammation than the multiple sclerosis group.

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Realistic depiction of a long COVID patient experiencing fatigue and breathing difficulties, overlaid with highlighted CD14+ monocytes (LC-Mo state) and inflammatory markers from recent immune study.
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Study links a distinct CD14+ monocyte state to fatigue and breathing symptoms in long COVID

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Researchers analyzing immune cells from people with long COVID have identified a distinct molecular state in CD14+ monocytes—labeled “LC-Mo”—that was more prevalent among patients whose initial COVID-19 illness was mild to moderate and that tracked with reported fatigue and respiratory symptoms, along with higher levels of inflammatory signaling molecules in blood plasma.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have identified how aging lungs contribute to severe flu and COVID-19 outcomes in older adults. Their study shows that lung fibroblasts trigger excessive inflammation, forming damaging clusters of immune cells. The findings, published in Immunity on March 27, suggest potential new treatments.

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