, /PRNewswire/ -- Research published today in and supported by the PolyBio Research Foundation shows that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can chronically persist in the gut of patients with long COVID for over 2 years. The findings, published by a UC San Francisco team known for in HIV research, also documented T cell immune activation across the bodies and brains of people after COVID. This T cell activation was particularly elevated in the spinal cord and gut wall of participants with long COVID.
"Long COVID is not a mystery," says Michael Peluso MD, an infectious disease researcher in the UCSF School of Medicine who co-led the study. "Our findings provide clear evidence of virus persistence and sustained immune activation after COVID-19. We must use this information to test treatments that might get people better.
" Tens of millions of people across the globe are sick with long COVID: debilitating chronic symptoms that can last for years after initial infection. The new study findings provide compelling evidence for two potential causes of long COVID: persistent SARS-CoV-2 infection and aberrant T cell activation. More specifically, the team used an advanced imaging method called whole-body positron emission tomography with a special tracer injected by vein to map activated T cells throughout the bodies of study participants from 27 to 910 days following COVID infection Post-COVID study participants showed increased T cell activation in sites across the brain and body, including the b.