ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - It's been more than five years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but doctors are still researching how the virus affects the human body; and even more mysterious are the cases of lasting symptoms often called “Long Covid.”
Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, also known as long Covid, is currently being researched by doctors at Albany Medical Center, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Temple University, according to Dr. Ariel Jaitovich, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Albany Medical Center.
“We started to notice that a significant group of patients complained about lingering symptoms, the symptoms that persisted, even after the resolution of the acute Covid infection,” said Dr. Ariel Jaitovich.
Patients with lasting Covid symptoms are the reason behind the years-long study. Not much is known about long Covid, and doctors do not have all the answers. According to the research, "blood samples were collected between February 2021 and June 2021 from 103 patients with long Covid at Albany Medical Center’s Pulmonary Clinic."
“ So we decided to open up a dedicated clinic, a disciplinary clinic at Albany Med to deal with these, try to help these people because they were not getting help anywhere because they were having problems that doctors were notable to recognize," Dr. Ariel Jaitovich said. "Even some people, a considerable amount of people, indicated that they weren’t being believed.”
Researchers like Dr. Jaitovich said the answer to who gets long Covid and why may lie somewhere in DNA after looking at the initial findings.
“All those different things characterizing long Covid actually are manifestations of the same disease," said Dr. Jaitovich. " A single disease. So we found out there are different changes in the blood chemical modifications to the DNA; those chemical modifications are called DNA methylation.”
The study shows that the levels of that methylation, could help identify the presence and severity of long Covid in patients. They also detected the same blood markers in patients, even when they had different symptoms. While there is progress in understanding long Covid, it’s a far cry from a solution at this point.
According to the study, "patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (long Covid) have a different blood DNA methylation profile than healthy patients and those who previously had a COVID-19 infection but didn’t develop long Covid."
For some experiencing what they think may be long Covid, Dr. Jaitovich says getting vaccinated could help reduce symptoms, but it is too early to recommend something to be given as a diagnosis or treatment to patients.
“I don’t feel that it is responsible for me to recommend anything on actual individuals having long Covid because I am not sure that the data we found can be replicated in a larger scale,” Dr. Jaitovich said.
Jaitovich and his team are now on to round two of the research.
"Now we are doing the second phase of the study, in which we not only enrolled the patient for the first time, but also invite the patient to come for a second visit during those to visit," Jaitovich said. "We obtain the first blood sample and a second blood sample and during the first encounter, we collect information about the quality of life and also in the second encounter."
Researchers hope to have a comprehensive study by 2028 with the goal of learning more about Long Covid.
