Preprint Divergent inflammatory and neurology-related plasma protein profiles in LC following primary and breakthrough infections., 2024, Bansal+

Divergent inflammatory and neurology-related plasma protein profiles in individuals with long COVID following primary and breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Amit Bansal; Sam W.Z. Olechnowicz; Nicholas Kiernan-Walker; Jacob Cumming; Ramin Mazhari; COVID PROFILE consortium; Rebecca J. Cox; Ivo Mueller; Rory Bowden; Emily M Eriksson

Long COVID is a complex condition where symptoms persist for more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection and affects an estimated 5-30% of individuals. While the pathobiology of long COVID is still evolving, persistent inflammation has emerged as an important feature of this condition. However, it is unclear if immune responses from COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 re-infection exacerbate or mirror the initial inflammatory responses.

To address this question, we quantified 182 inflammatory and neurology-related proteins in plasma using multiplexed affinity proteomics. Plasma samples were collected 6-9 months after first infection, but before COVID-19 vaccination from individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 (n=21) or from individuals with long COVID (n=12). This was benchmarked against plasma from unvaccinated, SARS-CoV-2 naive individuals (n=24). In addition to this cross-sectional analysis, we performed longitudinal analysis in a subset of individuals (n=34), where paired samples collected 2-4 weeks after a third COVID-19 vaccine dose and after SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection were available.

Boruta feature selection and lasso regression models identified a distinct plasma profile in long COVID individuals, characterised by elevated IL-20, HAGH, NAAA, CLEC10A, LXN, and MCP-1 and reduced TRAIL, G-CSF, NBL1, and CCL23 protein concentrations. Notably, longitudinal analysis demonstrated that neither COVID-19 booster vaccination nor breakthrough infection replicated inflammatory and neurology-related plasma protein profiles observed after primary infection suggesting an altered immune response outcome in individuals with long COVID upon re-exposure.


Link | PDF (Preprint: MedRxiv) [Open Access]

 

Emily Eriksson is an investigator in our current ME/CFS Mason study. It will be good to translate her expertise to ME

 

To me the abstract is completely opaque. What diverged from what? The overall impression is that they didn't find much other than a few odd patterns with statistics I have never heard of.

I prefer papers to present data rather than waffling about leveraging and rare opportunities.

 

Elevated MCP-1 was also found in the following thesis paper.
Paper : Role for EBV- & HHV-6A-dUTPases on Immune Dysfunction in ME/CFS and other Chronic Multi-Symptom Illnesses, 2024, Cox
Thread : https://www.s4me.info/threads/role-...ronic-multi-symptom-illnesses-2024-cox.40309/