As access to the COVID-19 vaccination expands across the country, some people suffering from long COVID, also known as long-haulers, reported relief after receiving the vaccine. Now, researchers are working to understand whether a vaccine can help people with long-term symptoms – and why.
Solving this mystery can unlock the secrets of the long COVID and even suggest therapies for a number of equally elusive conditions.
With nearly 30 million coronavirus cases across the country, the long COVID has emerged as an increasingly pressing issue.
“Even if we are able to stem the spread of the virus, there are already millions of people with long-term symptoms,” said Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale immunologist.
MORE: COVID-19 ‘Long-haulers’ trying to decode long-lasting symptoms a year after falling ill
Dr. Jennifer Frontera, a New York University neurointensivist who has been studying COVID for a long time, agrees that the number of long-distance trucks is probably “in the millions”.
Last year, Iwasaki proposed several possible causes of long COVID, which she now says can explain why a vaccine can help.
According to one theory, long COVID may result from a long-term viral infection or from viral fragments in the body, which the vaccine can cause the body to destroy, Iwasaki said.
“After doing this, you cure the symptoms by eliminating the source of the problem,” she said.
But another theory postulates that long COVID is an autoimmune response, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own cells, said Iwasaki. In that case, the immune response triggered by the vaccine can bypass the immune cells that were attacking cells in the body.
“These are not mutually exclusive,” said Iwasaki. “A person can have a persistent virus and autoimmunity.”
Some scientists, such as immunologist Dr. Nancy Klimas, wonder whether long COVID is caused by old viruses that remain in the body, but are normally controlled, such as infectious mononucleosis. She speculates that COVID damages the immune system and releases these viruses. The vaccine can then “restore a normal antiviral response, so that long-distance users can prevent reactivation of latent viruses,” said Klimas.
Other experts, like Frontera, suggest that it is better to understand why long COVID occurs before thinking about how a vaccine can help.
“Once we understand that, maybe you can try to hypothesize about an antibody or T-cell response to a vaccine that can improve long-term COVID symptoms,” said Frontera.
MORE: FDA authorizes new T-cell test that could be a game changer for COVID-19 long trucks
Dr Paul Offit, a vaccine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, emphasized that the only way to know if a vaccine helps relieve long-term symptoms is to design “a controlled study so that the person does not know whether they are getting a no. “This is to rule out what is called the placebo effect.
A placebo effect is possible, Frontera said, and in general, many patients begin to feel better after receiving any treatment, even if there is no biological reason to help.
While no one can say whether or how the vaccine relieves the long COVID-19, experts agree that long-distance travelers should get the vaccine, if possible.
“My advice to longhaulers is to get the vaccine, not because of it, but because they should anyway, and if they get it as a bonus, I want to know,” said Klimas.
“There are many reasons why people want to get the vaccine,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, who conducts results research at Yale. “What’s more, it has the added advantage that some people seem to be improving.”
Experts also agree that more research is critical.
“Finding the cause of these long-term symptoms would really help patients with everything: diagnosis, treatment and prognosis,” said Iwasaki.
“We are analyzing the serum of patients with long COVID to see if we can find antibodies and autoreactive T cells,” added Iwasaki. “We are also planning to examine the responses of people with long-standing COVID who receive the vaccine to see what kind of immunity is increasing.”
MORE: Children are among the COVID-19 ‘long haulers’
Meanwhile, Frontera has been investigating how many patients with COVID develop long-term symptoms and whether they feel relief after vaccination. She highlighted the importance of people’s participation in research.
“Please participate in any clinical studies for which you may be eligible,” she said. “We need everyone to help to try to get to the bottom of this.”
Research on long COVID and how the vaccine affects it can have far-reaching effects.
“If the vaccine increases the antiviral response in a non-specific way, it would be very good for many patients, not just long-distance patients, but also cancer patients and people whose immune systems have been affected in some way,” said Klimas.
Krumholz added: “Understanding this can unlock the secret to treating some other post-viral diseases or some other autoimmune or virus-mediated diseases, so it could help science in ways beyond the pandemic.”
Maia Ou, MD, a resident psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Northwell Health, is a contributor to ABC News Medical Unit.
Experts assess how COVID vaccines can help long-distance travelers originally appeared on abcnews.go.com