The research has not yet been published, but pulmonologist Merel Hellemons, who is doing the research together with Drexhage, tells in the podcast that extensive abnormalities in the immune system are found in Lung Covid patients. Hellemons, who has been dealing with Long Covid for some time, asked patients who still had long-term complaints after hospitalization to donate 8 tubes of blood.
The research by Hemmo Drexhage and Merel Hellemons has now been completed and submitted as preprintit will probably be published in a few months.
Immune system at a loss
Drexhage says in the podcast: “We are still weighing the results, but what is clear is that there is a wide range of immune abnormalities in Lung Covid patients.” The study was conducted on patients who had been in hospital, but Drexhage thinks the same applies to Lung Covid patients who have experienced a mild infection.
The immune system seems “runaway” in many patients, Drexhage tells us. However, it cannot be ruled out that there is also another reason: small particles of virus that have remained in the brainstem, which are reactivated. “It is of course also possible that both exist. That a little bit of virus remains and that the immune system is constantly in the wrong position.”
American research
In August, American scientists from Yale University also published a study on abnormalities in the immune system of people with Lung Covid. Those researchers discovered clear differences in various components of the immune system. They see a lack of the stress hormone cortisol, depleted immune cells, chronic inflammation and sometimes reactivated viruses in the blood of patients.