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... The lingering toll the SARS-CoV-2 virus exacts on the immune system is widespread and hiding in plain sight, argue researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, CellSight Technologies, and Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center.
When 24 patients who had recovered from COVID-19 had their whole bodies scanned by a PET (positron emission tomography) imaging test, their insides lit up like Christmas trees.
A radioactive drug called a tracer revealed abnormal T cell activity in the brain stem, spinal cord, bone marrow, nose, throat, some lymph nodes, heart and lung tissue, and the wall of the gut, compared to whole-body scans from before the pandemic.
This widespread effect was apparent in the 18 participants with long COVID symptoms and the six participants who had fully recovered from the acute phase of COVID-19.
The activation of immune T cells in some tissues, like the spinal cord and the gut wall, was higher in patients who reported long COVID symptoms compared to those who made a complete recovery. Participants with ongoing respiratory issues also showed increased uptake of the PET tracer in their lungs and pulmonary artery walls.
That said, even those who recovered fully from COVID-19 still showed persistent changes to their T cell activity in numerous organs compared to pre- pandemic controls, in some cases two and a half years after they first contracted the virus.
"In some individuals, this activity may persist for years following initial COVID-19 onset and be associated with systemic changes in immune activation as well as the presence of [long COVID] symptoms," researchers at UCSF conclude. ...
