Authors: University of Otago July 12, 2022: Science Daily<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Summary: Researchers have uncovered how post-viral fatigue syndromes, including Long COVID, become life-changing diseases and why patients suffer frequent relapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arising commonly from a viral infection, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis\/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME\/CFS), is known to cause brain-centred symptoms of neuroinflammation, loss of homeostasis, brain fog, lack of refreshing sleep, and poor response to even small stresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long-COVID has similar effects on people and is believed to also be caused by neuroinflammation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead author Emeritus Professor Warren Tate, of the University of Otago’s Department of Biochemistry, says how these debilitating brain effects develop is poorly understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a study published in Frontiers in Neurology<\/em>, he and colleagues from Otago, Victoria University of Wellington and University of Technology Sydney, developed a unifying model to explain how the brain-centred symptoms of these diseases are sustained through a brain-body connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They propose that, following an initial viral infection or stressor event, the subsequent systemic pathology moves to the brain vianeurovascular pathways or through a dysfunctional blood-brain barrier. This results in chronic neuroinflammation, leading to a sustained illness with chronic relapse recovery cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The model proposes healing does not occur because a signal continuously cycles from the brain to the body, causing the patient to relapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The creation of this model is not only important for the “huge research effort ahead,” but also to provide recognition for ME\/CFS and Long COVID sufferers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “These diseases are very closely related, and it is clear the biological basis of Long COVID is unequivocally connected to the original COVID infection — so there should no longer be any debate and doubt about the fact that post viral fatigue syndromes like ME\/CFS are biologically based and involve much disturbed physiology,” Emeritus Professor Tate says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This work will enable best evidence-based knowledge of these illnesses, and best management practices, to be developed for medical professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Patients need appropriate affirmation of their biological-based illness and help to mitigate the distressing symptoms of these very difficult life-changing syndromes which are difficult for the patients to manage by themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “This work highlighted that there is a susceptible subset of people who develop such syndromes when exposed to a severe stress, like infection with COVID-19, or the glandular fever virus Epstein Barr, or in some people with vaccination that is interpreted as a severe stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What should be a transient inflammatory\/immune response in the body to clear the infection, develop immunity and manage the physiological stress, becomes chronic, and so the disease persists.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n make a difference: sponsored opportunity<\/p>\n\n\n\n Story Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Materials<\/a> provided by University of Otago<\/strong><\/a>. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Journal Reference<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors: University of Otago July 12, 2022: Science Daily Summary: Researchers have uncovered how post-viral fatigue syndromes, including Long COVID, become life-changing diseases and why patients suffer frequent relapses. Arising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,140,152,169,289,883],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chronic-fatigue-syndrome","category-encephalomyelitis","category-epstein-barr","category-fatigure","category-long-haul-disease","category-myalgic-encephalomyelitis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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