Long COVID researchers report treatment breakthrough, Massachusetts COVID cases up 1,699
Boston-area doctors studying long COVID report that they’ve made a research breakthrough, which gives them a “handhold” on the debilitating condition and could lead to a possible treatment.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital have identified a potential biomarker for long COVID, finding it in blood samples.
Investigators analyzed 63 plasma samples from patients with post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 (PASC also known as long COVID). They detected the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein circulating in the blood up to 12 months after a person was diagnosed with COVID.
The researchers found the protein in more than half of the patient samples, suggesting that the virus may persist in the body and linger in an unknown viral reservoir.
“If PASC is the result of persistent viral replication in tissues outside the lung, it may help explain why patients experience the symptoms of long COVID,” said senior author David Walt, of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham.
“Identifying this biomarker in the blood gives us a handhold on this condition, gives us a potential therapeutic target, and may help us identify people with long COVID who are most likely to benefit from new treatment approaches,” Walt added.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 1,699 daily COVID cases, down from the 1,915 recorded infections last Thursday. Testing was significantly lower this week.
As the omicron subvariant BA.5 variant gains steam across the region, the state’s daily average positive test rate has been climbing in the last few weeks. The average positive test rate is now 7.29%, up from the 5.85% at this time last week.
State health officials reported 18 new COVID deaths, bringing the state’s total recorded death toll to 21,014. The daily average of deaths was much higher following the omicron hospitalization surge. The daily death rate is now six.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have been plateauing in the past month. There are now 526 COVID patients across the Bay State after total hospitalizations ticked up by eight patients.
