An analysis of tissue samples from the autopsies of 44 people who died with COVID-19 shows that SAR-CoV-2 virus spread throughout the body—including into the brain—and that it lingered for almost 8 months. The study was published on December 14 in the journal Nature. Scientists from the National
An analysis of autopsied tissue samples from 44 individuals who passed away with COVID-19 revealed that the SAR-CoV-2 virus spread throughout the body, including the brain, and persisted for almost 8 months.shows that SAR-CoV-2 virus spread throughout the body—including into the brain—and that it lingered for almost 8 months.
The researchers detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA and protein in the hypothalamus and cerebellum of one patient and in the spinal cord and basal ganglia of two other patients. But they found little damage to brain tissue, “despite substantial viral burden.” The authors wrote, “We demonstrated virus replication in multiple non-respiratory sites during the first two weeks following symptom onset.”
Finding viral presence throughout the body—and sharing those findings with colleagues a year ago—helped scientists explore a relationship between widely infected bodily tissues and “long COVID,” or symptoms that persist for weeks and months after infection.
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