Scientists are studying whether long COVID could be linked to viral fragments found in the body months after initial infection
, and include harmful immune responses, tiny blood clots and lingering viral reservoirs in the body. Many researchers think that a mix of these factors contributes to the global burden of disease.published in 2021 by gastroenterologist Saurabh Mehandru at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and his colleagues. By then, it was clear that cells lining the gut display the protein that the virus uses to enter cells. This allows SARS-CoV-2 to infect the gut.
Inspired by this work, Bhatt and her colleagues found that a few people continued to shed viral RNA into their stool seven months after an initial mild or moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection, well after their respiratory symptoms had endedAdolph says the 2021 paper inspired his team to look at their biopsy samples for signs of coronavirus. They found that 32 of 46 study participants who had had mild COVID-19 showed evidence of viral molecules in their gut seven months after acute infection.
In the meantime, more studies have suggested lingering viral reservoirs beyond the gut. Another team of researchers has studied tissue collected from autopsies of 44 people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and found evidence of viral RNA in many sites, including the heart, eyes and brain