Any extracts used in the following article are for non commercial research and educational purposes only and may be subject to copyright from their respective owners. Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 infection determines the COVID-19 syndrome characterized, in the worst cases, by severe respiratory distress, pulmonary and cardiac fibrosis, inflammatory cytokine release, and immunosuppression. This condition has led to the death of about 2.15% of the total infected world population so far. Among survivors, the presence of the so-called persistent post-COVID-19 syndrome (PPCS) is a common finding. In COVID-19 survivors, PPCS presents one or more symptoms: fatigue, dyspnea, memory loss, sleep disorders, and difficulty concentrating. In this study, a cohort of 117 COVID-19 survivors (post-COVID-19) and 144 non-infected volunteers (COVID-19-free) was analyzed using pyrosequencing of defined CpG islands previously identified as suitable for biological age determination. The results show a consistent biological age increase in the post-COVID-19 population, determining a DeltaAge acceleration of 10.45 ± 7.29 years (+5.25 years above the range of normality) compared with 3.68 ± 8.17 years for the COVID-19-free population (p < 0.0001). A significant telomere shortening parallels this finding in the post-COVID-19 cohort compared with COVID-19-free subjects (p < 0.0001). Additionally, ACE2 expression was decreased in post-COVID-19 patients, compared with the COVID-19-free population, while DPP-4 did not change. In light of these observations, we hypothesize that some epigenetic alterations are associated with the post-COVID-19 condition, particularly in younger patients (< 60 years).
Feb 14, 2022·edited Feb 14, 2022Liked by DoorlessCarp🐭
Not saying there is an autoimmune component to long covid but I find it interesting that the common symptoms you listed for Long Covid are the same ones I experienced leading up to my diagnosis with a very rare autoimmune disease that has no biomarker (ie: there are no blood tests that can diagnose it like many other AI diseases). There is a misconception that all autoimmune diseases can be detected by AI specific blood tests, blood abnormalities, etc but this is not the case. It makes you wonder if there is an autoimmune process going on in at least some of the people experiencing Long Covid. But I will concede that I suspect a number are experiencing post viral fatigue which is not uncommon after viral infections such as Mono, etc. It can take 6 months to recover from it. I knew quite a few kids when I was young who went thru it.
Not saying there is an autoimmune component to long covid but I find it interesting that the common symptoms you listed for Long Covid are the same ones I experienced leading up to my diagnosis with a very rare autoimmune disease that has no biomarker (ie: there are no blood tests that can diagnose it like many other AI diseases). There is a misconception that all autoimmune diseases can be detected by AI specific blood tests, blood abnormalities, etc but this is not the case. It makes you wonder if there is an autoimmune process going on in at least some of the people experiencing Long Covid. But I will concede that I suspect a number are experiencing post viral fatigue which is not uncommon after viral infections such as Mono, etc. It can take 6 months to recover from it. I knew quite a few kids when I was young who went thru it.