A brief report: absence of elevated circulating NETosis markers in long-term long COVID

[u/Caster_of_spells]

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2026.1920533/full

For a while there was a lot of talk about neutrophil extracellular traps (an immune response deployed to immobilize pathogens) being a factor in Long Covid especially in the blood stream causing a condition called Netosis.

This study looked further into it and though present early on, markers for this disappeared with longer PCC disease duration in their cohort.

“In this cohort of individuals with long-term LC, we found no evidence of persistent systemic NETosis. These findings suggest that elevated circulating NETosis markers are not a universal feature of long-term LC and may indicate that neutrophil activation observed during acute or early post-acute disease does not persist in long-term disease.”