Thread by @Gronnet

AGAIN - 🦠🦠🦠
“When comparing patients with post-COVID symptoms and patients without, we found that Spike protein and viral RNA were more likely to be present in patients with PASC and in some cases at higher levels compared to acute COVID-19 patients.” papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

#viralpersistence

“The levels of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein in the plasma and EV samples were determined using the SAR-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) Spike protein ELISA Kit according to the manufacturer instructions (SinoBiological).”

“We grouped PASC patients into PASC-positive (n=33) and PASC-negative (n=14).

When we examined the viral RNA copies in the plasma from PASC+ve and PASC-ve individuals, 28% of PASC-ve samples showed presence of viral RNA copies…”

“…ranging from 0.08- 2.13 copies/ul, whereas 59% of PASC+ve patients had presence of viral RNA in circulation (0.07-12.74 copies/ul) with much higher copy numbers in some of the individuals compared to PASC-ve or acute COVID-19 groups.”

“Parallel evaluation of Spike protein in the plasma also found the presence of Spike protein in 4 of 14 PASC-ve individuals and 21 of 33 of PASC+ve (64%) samples and the levels were within the range of the levels observed in acute COVID-19 samples.”

“Additionally, we found that in PASC+ve group 33% (11/33) samples showed positivity for both Spike protein as well as viral RNA in plasma, 30% (10/33) for only Spike protein and 18% (6/33) for only viral RNA.”

“However, in the PASC-ve group, none of the samples showed positivity for both Spike protein and viral RNA. When we compared the levels of viral RNA and Spike protein during the acute COVID-19 and post-recovery phase of COVID-19 in the same patients (n=12)…”

“…we observed that in the PASC+ve patient group, Spike protein &/or viral RNA increased or remained the same as in the acute phase; whereas, in the PASC-ve group, Spike protein was found to be totally absent & viral RNA either decreased to very low copy numbers or undetectable.”

“We report here that Spike protein and viral RNA circulate in acute COVID-19 patients, can persist for up to 1 year or longer after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, and are associated with PASC.”

“patients who have PASC were more likely to have higher levels of these SARS-CoV-2 componentes in circulation than those without PASC and that viral RNA was increased in PASC patients even in comparison to acutely infected individuals.”

“Our results revealed that most patients did not have both Spike protein and viral RNA in plasma simultaneously, suggesting that the persistence of viral particles is probably not due to actively replicating virus.”

“It is intriguing that we showed increased levels of Spike protein in PASC+ve patients, indicating that Spike protein-driven endothelial activation may persist and perhaps contribute to increased risk of clotting and endothelial dysfunction during PASC.”