Autoimmunity and Long COVID: Are They Linked?

Up to 10% of COVID-19 survivors experience ongoing fatigue, headache, dyspnea on exertion, disturbances of taste and smell, myalgia, and cognitive dysfunction. If one or more of these symptoms extends >3 months after initial infection, the syndrome is considered long COVID. It appears to be associated with female sex, severity of the acute phase, and vaccination status; nonetheless, its pathophysiology remains obscure. To address the hypothesis that long COVID is a virus-induced autoimmune process, researchers in Canada evaluated a panel of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and antibodies against extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) in a cohort of 106 convalescent COVID-19 patients without history of autoimmune or rheumatic disease (an unspecified…