Research highlighting chronic inflammation opens path to treating illness that affects millions of Americans
A new study from investigators at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center sheds light on why some people never fully recover from COVID-19.
In research that analyzed blood samples from more than 140 participants, scientists led by Dan H. Barouch tracked immunologic and inflammatory responses over time in patients who developed long COVID as compared with patients who fully recovered from COVID. The team found key differences in patients who developed long COVID and evidence of persistent chronic inflammation long after acute illness. The team’s findings, published in Nature Immunology, open the door to new treatment strategies for people with long COVID.
“There is currently no specific treatment for long COVID, which affects millions of people in the United States, and most clinical trials to date for this condition have focused on testing antiviral agents to clear potential residual virus,” said Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel and the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “In contrast, our findings show that long COVID in humans is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways, which defines new potential therapeutic targets.”