23/08/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/1B8jppHxUD/
🧬 It's real. Scientists just found hidden virus fragments in the blood of long COVID patients.
We may finally have a biomarker proving what it is.
In a promising step toward understanding long COVID, researchers have identified viral protein fragments lingering in the blood of affected patients—potentially offering the first measurable biomarker for this complex condition.
Scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Lundquist Institute found these fragments, derived from the virus’s RNA replicase enzyme, inside tiny cellular carriers called extracellular vesicles. These "ghost" proteins were absent in pre-pandemic controls, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 may persist in hidden reservoirs within the body long after the initial infection clears.
The study, published in Infection, involved blood samples from patients enrolled in a long COVID exercise trial. While not every blood draw revealed viral remnants, the recurring detection of SARS-CoV-2 fragments points to a lingering molecular footprint that may help explain symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and post-exertional malaise. The researchers caution that more work is needed to determine whether these fragments reflect ongoing viral activity or are simply cellular debris. Still, the findings offer a potential diagnostic breakthrough—and a clearer biological window into one of COVID-19’s most mysterious aftermaths.
Source: Asghar Abbasi et al. Possible long COVID biomarker: identification of SARC-CoV-2 related protein(s) in Serum Extracellular Vesicles. Infection, 2025.
