What a study on long Covid in adolescents says
A part of those recovered from Covid-19 continues to experience a condition of malaise defined as long Covid even months later, for which the WHO has also established the criteria for identifying it. Although it still remains a "mysterious" syndrome, this is what a CNR study on adolescents found
More than one in two patients in the world cured of Covid-19 develops long-term symptoms that persist for up to six months after recovery . It is long Covid, a condition of malaise characterized by asthenia, fatigue, difficulty breathing and cognitive symptoms, such as memory loss, difficulty concentrating, anxiety and depression, often referred to as 'brain fog' and at the basis of the clinical picture defined as NeuroCovid.
SMALL STEPS FORWARD
To date, there is no treatment that guarantees total recovery and patients often fail to obtain either a clear medical explanation or a cure. However, experts continue to investigate and a recent pilot study , coordinated by Marco Fiore and Carla Petrella of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the National Research Council of Rome (Cnr-Ibbc) led to the identification of early biomarkers of long Covid in teenagers.
The research was conducted at the Umberto I Polyclinic of the Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with Raffaella Nenna, Fabio Midulla, Luigi Tarani of the Maternal Child and Urological Sciences Department and Antonio Minni, Sensory Organs Department.
I STUDY
The results of the research, which opens up new fields of investigation in the field of long-term biological and psychological effects, have been published in Diagnostics .
The CNR-Ibbc study, which focused on adolescents, indicates in young people who have fallen ill new and early biomarkers, potentially predictors of post Covid syndrome.
HOW THE STUDY WAS CARRIED OUT
"We measured the levels of some inflammatory biomarkers and two neurotrophins (Ngf and Bdnf), protein factors that regulate the growth, survival and morphology of neurons, in the serum of a small cohort of boys and girls who had contracted the infection during the second wave of the pandemic, between September and October 2020, but negative at the time of collection, "explained Fiore.
The participants were divided into 3 groups: asymptomatic, acute symptomatic, acute symptomatic who developed long Covid symptoms over time. "These data – added Fiore – were then compared with the values that emerged from a sample group that had not contracted the disease".
THE DISCOVERIES
“We found that serum Ngf levels were lower in all adolescents who had contracted Sars-Cov-2 infection, compared to healthy controls. The inverse relationship between Ngf levels and stress syndromes is widely reported in the scientific literature, ”said the expert.
The research hypothesizes, in fact, that the decrease in Ngf reflects a persistent activation of the stress axis, due to a direct effect of the virus or to the psycho-social effects resulting from isolation and changes in the daily routine encountered during periods of forty.
"The levels of Bdnf, similarly to the inflammatory biomarker Tgf-β, were instead higher in individuals who had become ill than in healthy ones, but only in symptomatic girls who would then develop long Covid symptoms – added Petrella – In particular, the persistent increase in serum levels of Bdnf and Tgf-β was present in adolescents who presented with respiratory symptoms during the acute phase of the infection ”.
THE RESULTS
The studies, the experts say, will be deepened, broadening the research to a wider cohort of adolescents, but in the meantime, as Fiore stated: "The data of the study already support the hypothesis that the serum variations of Ngf and Bdnf represent a alarm bells for the long-term effect of Covid-19, opening new fields of investigation both in the field of physical and psychological effects potentially associated with NeuroCovid ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/cosa-dice-uno-studio-sul-long-covid-negli-adolescenti/ on Mon, 06 Jun 2022 11:20:38 +0000.