- Researchers say changes in genes may be responsible for long haul COVID-19 symptoms.
- They say the spike proteins on the novel coronavirus may alter gene expressions after they infect healthy cells.
- Experts say this research, if verified, could be an important step in better understanding long haul symptoms.
When much of the world began shutting down in March 2020, Ashley McLaughlin, 22, was in Morocco, working for the Peace Corps.
She caught a flight home to New Jersey while she could, began a 2-week quarantine, and almost immediately lost her senses of taste and smell.
She and many of the 170 workers in her group tested positive for COVID-19. In her case — 14 months later — the disease still has her reeling.
“Initially, I lost my taste and smell for six days and had only minor other symptoms. Not sick in the traditional sense,” McLaughlin told Healthline. “Unfortunately, strange symptoms followed me the next few months, including COVID toes, rashes, strange exercise intolerance, and brain fog until mid-summer, when a stress and exercise-intensive day led to a full relapse into long COVID, where I was in and out of the hospital and completely debilitated otherwise.”
More than a year after testing positive, McLaughlin hasn’t been able to work. She’s restricted to her home and some days to bed. She’s what scientists call a COVID long-hauler, a condition that has mostly baffled researchers during the early part of the pandemic.
Source: healthline