A new research has suggested that coronavirus infection can alter the biomechanical properties of red and white blood cells, in some cases for months which can be the reason why Covid-survivors suffer for months even after they clear their life-threatening infection. Their suffering can be varied including shortness of breath, fatigue and headaches.
In their study published in the Biophysical Journal, the researchers also said that the oxygen supply, which is one of the main tasks of the erythrocytes may be impaired in infected persons.
The biophysicists from Erlangen examined more than four million blood cells from 17 patients acutely ill with Covid-19, from 14 people who had recovered and 24 healthy people as a comparison group.
Using real-time deformability cytometry, researchers showed how Covid-19 significantly changes the size and stiffness of red and white blood cells - sometimes over months. These results may help to explain why some affected people continue to complain of symptoms long after an infection (long Covid).
This post Covid-19 syndrome, also called long covid, is still not properly understood. What is clear is that -- during the course of the disease -- often blood circulation is impaired, dangerous vascular occlusions can occur and oxygen transport is limited. These are all phenomena in which the blood cells and their physical properties play a key role.
To investigate this aspect, a team of scientists from the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the German Centre for Immunotherapy measured the mechanical states of red and white blood cells. “We were able to detect clear and long-lasting changes in the cells -- both during an acute infection and even afterwards,” said Professor Guck, currently managing director of MPL.
Lymphocytes (one type of white blood cell responsible for the acquired immune defense) were in turn significantly softer in Covid-19 patients, which typically indicates a strong immune reaction. The researchers made similar observations for
neutrophil granulocytes, another group of white blood cells involved in the innate immune response.
These cells even remained drastically altered seven months after the acute infection. “We suspect that the cytoskeleton of immune cells, which is largely responsible for cell function, has changed,” said Markéta Kubánková, first author of the research article.
