In some patients, remnants of the coronavirus in the gut may stifle production of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter, researchers suggest.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have found that COVID-19 virus particles can stay in the intestinal tract long after infection for some people. The virus induces an inflammatory response, and that inflammatory response leads to reduced levels of serotonin.
Serotonin is a chemical messenger between the brain and body. It impacts functions like blood clots and body temperature regulation, mood, sleep and memory. "The next steps would be, of course, to get a better, deeper mechanistic understanding of what exactly is going on in between the gut and the brain and the other symptoms," said Maayan Levy, an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Long COVID seems to come in a variety of forms. There are the people who have lost their taste and smell. There are the brain fog folks. Then there are aches and pains and disruption of function of the lungs and maybe other organ systems," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease physician at Vanderbilt University.
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