Long-term effects of Omicron BA.2 breakthrough infection on immunity-metabolism balance: a 6-month prospective study

Yanhua Li, Shijie Qin, Lei Dong, Shitong Qiao, Xiao Wang, Dongshan Yu, Pengyue Gao, Yali Hou, Shouzhen Quan, Ying Li, Fengyan Fan, Xin Zhao (), Yueyun Ma () and George Fu Gao ()
Additional contact information
Yanhua Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shijie Qin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lei Dong: Air Force Medical Center
Shitong Qiao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiao Wang: Yunnan University
Dongshan Yu: The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University
Pengyue Gao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yali Hou: Shanxi Academy of Advanced Research and Innovation
Shouzhen Quan: Air Force Medical Center
Ying Li: Air Force Medical Center
Fengyan Fan: Air Force Medical Center
Xin Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yueyun Ma: Air Force Medical Center
George Fu Gao: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Abstract There have been reports of long coronavirus disease (long COVID) and breakthrough infections (BTIs); however, the mechanisms and pathological features of long COVID after Omicron BTIs remain unclear. Assessing long-term effects of COVID-19 and immune recovery after Omicron BTIs is crucial for understanding the disease and managing new-generation vaccines. Here, we followed up mild BA.2 BTI convalescents for six-month with routine blood tests, proteomic analysis and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). We found that major organs exhibited ephemeral dysfunction and recovered to normal in approximately six-month after BA.2 BTI. We also observed durable and potent levels of neutralizing antibodies against major circulating sub-variants, indicating that hybrid humoral immunity stays active. However, platelets may take longer to recover based on proteomic analyses, which also shows coagulation disorder and an imbalance between anti-pathogen immunity and metabolism six-month after BA.2 BTI. The immunity-metabolism imbalance was then confirmed with retrospective analysis of abnormal levels of hormones, low blood glucose level and coagulation profile. The long-term malfunctional coagulation and imbalance in the material metabolism and immunity may contribute to the development of long COVID and act as useful indicator for assessing recovery and the long-term impacts after Omicron sub-variant BTIs.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46692-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-46692-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46692-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().