Long COVID involves activation of proinflammatory and immune exhaustion pathways

View Publication on PubMed

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Published

December 2025

Journal

Nature Immunology

Abstract

Long COVID (LC) involves a spectrum of chronic symptoms after acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Current hypotheses for the pathogenesis of LC include persistent virus, tissue damage, autoimmunity, endocrine insufficiency, immune dysfunction and complement activation. We performed immunological, virological, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses from a cohort of 142 individuals between 2020 and 2021, including uninfected controls (n = 35), acutely infected individuals (n = 54), convalescent controls (n = 24) and patients with LC (n = 28). The LC group was characterized by persistent immune activation and proinflammatory responses for more than 180 days after initial infection compared with convalescent controls, including upregulation of JAK-STAT, interleukin-6, complement, metabolism and T cell exhaustion pathways. Similar findings were observed in a second cohort enrolled between 2023 and 2024, including convalescent controls (n = 20) and patients with LC (n = 18). These data suggest that LC is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways, suggesting new therapeutic targets and potential biomarkers of disease.

Authors

Malika Aid, Valentin Boero-Teyssier, Katherine McMahan, Rammy Dong, Michael Doyle, Nazim Belabbaci, Erica Borducchi, Ai-Ris Y Collier, Janet Mullington, Dan H Barouch

Keywords

Not available