Improvement of immune dysregulation in individuals with long COVID at 24-months following SARS-CoV-2 infection

C Phetsouphanh; B Jacka; S Ballouz; KJL Jackson; DB Wilson; B Manandhar; V Klemm; HX Tan; A Wheatley; A Aggarwal; A Akerman; V Milogiannakis; M Starr; P Cunningham; SG Turville; SJ Kent; A Byrne; BJ Brew; DR Darley; GJ Dore; AD Kelleher; GV Matthews

Journal article

Improvement of immune dysregulation in individuals with long COVID at 24-months following SARS-CoV-2 infection

C Phetsouphanh, B Jacka, S Ballouz, KJL Jackson, DB Wilson, B Manandhar, V Klemm, HX Tan, A Wheatley, A Aggarwal, A Akerman, V Milogiannakis, M Starr, P Cunningham, SG Turville, SJ Kent, A Byrne, BJ Brew, DR Darley, GJ Dore Show all

Nature Communications | Published : 2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47720-8

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Abstract

This study investigates the humoral and cellular immune responses and health-related quality of life measures in individuals with mild to moderate long COVID (LC) compared to age and gender matched recovered COVID-19 controls (MC) over 24 months. LC participants show elevated nucleocapsid IgG levels at 3 months, and higher neutralizing capacity up to 8 months post-infection. Increased spike-specific and nucleocapsid-specific CD4+ T cells, PD-1, and TIM-3 expression on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were observed at 3 and 8 months, but these differences do not persist at 24 months. Some LC participants had detectable IFN-γ and IFN-β, that was attributed to reinfection and antigen re-exposure. Single-c..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Hyon Xhi Tan Author

Adam Wheatley Author

Stephen Kent Author

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Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the St Vincent's Centre for Applied Medical Research-Clinical Trials Unit for their expertise in specimen processing and biobanking. We thank E. Johansson Beves for assistance with the Cytek Aurora. We appreciate grant support from the St Vincent's Clinic Foundation, the Curran Foundation, the Rapid Response Research Fund, and the Medical Research Futures Fund (Australia). D.B.W. was supported by NSF-DMA grant 1902854. S.J.K. was supported by the Victorian Government, MRFF award 2005544, NHMRC program grant 1149990 (S.J.K. and A.D.K.) and NHMRC fellowships (1136322 to S.J.K.). S.B. was supported by a fellowship from the Magid's and a Ramsay award by the Solve ME/CFS Initiative (SMCI).