Inflammation after COVID may lead to loss of sense of smell, new study finds

Jaymy Lee

Also, India recommends masks and a call to stop universal COVID testing before hospital visits

Want to know why you lost your sense of smell after a COVID-19 infection? A small new study might have the answer.

The research, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, found it was linked to inflammation of the olfactory system, which includes the nose and nasal cavities. This is where our ability to feel lies.

Why some people with COVID lose their sense of taste or smell has long been a mystery. In some cases, people lost their sense of smell for years after recovering from COVID. Doctors call this “olfactory dysfunction”.

Patients who reported the loss of smell have fewer olfactory sensory neurons than those who could smell normally, based on an analysis of 24 nasal tissue biopsies from people who recovered from COVID. Nine of these samples were from patients with long-term loss of smell.

“We think that the reduction in sensory neurons is almost definitely linked to inflammation,” said Dr. Brad Goldstein, one of the study’s co-authors and a sinus surgeon at Duke University Durham, in North Carolina, at the Wall Street Journal.

According to the study, T cell-mediated inflammation can persist in the olfactory system long after infection. T cells, like antibodies, are part of the body’s immune response to COVID infection.

Another study, published earlier this month in PLOS One and conducted by researchers at Columbia University, made a similar finding, citing antibodies as the reason for the loss of smell. “Our results suggest the presence of a robust anti-Spike IgG response in individuals with loss of smell and taste during COVID-19 infection,” these researchers concluded.

COVID news to know:

— Stop testing patients for COVID before surgery. That’s the new recommendation from the Healthcare Epidemiology of America, which says universal screening of asymptomatic patients before a hospital visit has “uncertain benefit.”

— A hospital in China expects millions of new COVID cases. A Shanghai hospital reportedly told its workers to prepare for half of the city’s 25 million people to fall ill by the end of next week, calling it a ‘tragic battle’ with COVID, according to Reuters.

— India braces for a COVID surge. The country’s health minister has told people to start wearing masks again and get their reminders, according to the BBC. India’s cases remain low; however, the country is paying close attention to the spike in infections in China.

— Monoclonal antibody gains full FDA approval. The Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to Roche Holding’s Actemra, its treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, for adults who have been hospitalized with severe COVID. The monoclonal antibody, which has treated more than a million people, first received emergency clearance in mid-2021.

— COVID infections in the United States continue to rise. The seven-day average of new daily COVID cases hit a 15-week high of 67,491 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, the most since Sept. 8. Three states have seen cases more than double in the past two weeks. , with Michigan jumping 378%, Georgia 127% and Rhode Island 105%. The number of COVID-related hospitalizations rose 8% in two weeks to 40,129, and the daily average of deaths was 413, up 21% in two weeks.

-Jaimy Lee

(END) Dow Jones Newswire

22-12-22 1113ET

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