![]() ![]() The researchers piggybacked onto the interferon lambda trial because the participants were less sick than the hospitalized patients who were the focus of many other investigations at the time. Fecal samples were collected from participants at specific time points as part of the trial. Participants in the trial were monitored to follow the evolution of their symptoms and the degree and location of viral shedding. The research team took advantage of an early clinical trial launched in May 2020 at Stanford Medicine of a possible treatment, interferon lambda, for mild COVID-19 infection. She and her colleagues are continuing their study of viral shedding in fecal samples as part of the nationwide RECOVER Initiative sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Others with the mental confusion commonly called “brain fog” could similarly have a lingering infection in their nervous system, Bhatt speculated.īhatt is the senior author of the study, was published online in Med on April 12. Postdoctoral scholar Aravind Natarajan, PhD research scientist Soumaya Zlitni laboratory manager Erin Brooks and research scientist Summer Vance are the lead authors of the study.īhatt, who researches how the microbiome - the vast universe of bacteria that carpets the lining of our intestines - affects human health, is eager to study whether an individual’s bacterial “gutprint” affects whether, how and for how long the virus is shed in their feces after an infection with SARS-CoV-2. People with primarily gastrointestinal symptoms could have a persistent viral infection in their intestines, for example. Maybe long COVID - and the wide variety of symptoms it causes - is due to the immune system’s response to viral proteins in hidden reservoirs throughout the body.” “But our study shows that SARS-CoV-2 can hide out in the gut for months. “No one really knows what causes long COVID,” said Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and of genetics. But the results highlight a possible viral reservoir that could partially explain the mystifying constellation of symptoms that plague a minority of COVID-19 patients for months after their initial infection. They were isolating fragmented genetic material rather than intact, infectious viral particles. The findings don’t imply that there is fecal-to-oral transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, the researchers caution. It adds to mounting evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus actively infects the gut. The study is the first to assess the presence of viral RNA in fecal samples from individuals with mild to moderate COVID-19 that are collected at various points after they became ill. Those who do often suffer lingering gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. If you’re relying on nasal or throat-based tests to give you a clean bill of health after a COVID-19 infection, you might be swabbing the wrong end.Ī study by researchers at Stanford Medicine has found that infected people can shed viral genetic material in their feces for up to seven months after diagnosis. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |