Most Long-Covid Biomarkers Are Not That Useful, But One Truly Stands Out
My observations as an academic who has published in this area.
Each time a major study announces the discovery of new biomarkers for long-Covid, the news rapidly ignites across media platforms, sparking widespread excitement that we may finally be able to test whether someone truly has long-Covid or not.
But are things that simple? Will science finally reach a point where a simple blood test can determine a long-Covid diagnosis? I find these questions tricky to answer, which is why I’m writing about them.
Recently, several important long-Covid biomarker studies have been published in top academic journals like Nature, Science, and Cell. Even I’ve also published in this area, specifically a meta-analysis of over 20 potential biomarkers of long-Covid. I’ll delve into these studies with a critical eye to understand what they mean in the real, clinical context.
Author’s note: Feel free to skip to the last section for the main takeaways.
Biomarker 1: Complement proteins
The latest long-Covid biomarker study, titled “Persistent complement dysregulation with signs of thromboinflammation in active Long Covid,” was published in Science earlier…
