COVID-19 lung damage caused by persistence of 'abnormal cells'

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Investigations of deceased COVID-19 patients have shed light on possible lung damage caused by the virus.

The study, published today in The Lancet’s eBioMedicine, by King’s in collaboration with University of Trieste and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biology in Italy, shows the unique characteristics to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and may explain why patients suffer from ‘long COVID’.

Patients with COVID-19 can experience symptoms such as blood clotting and loss of smell and taste. Some who survive the infection can experience the effects of the disease for months – known as ‘long COVID’ – with a feeling of fatigue and lack of breath. There have been a limited number of studies that have analysed the organs of COVID-19 patients which means the characteristics of the disease are still largely unknown.

Researchers analysed the organs of 41 patients who died of COVID-19 at the University Hospital of Trieste, Italy, from February to April 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The team took lung, heart, liver, and kidney samples to examine the behaviour of the virus.

Findings show extensive lung damage in most cases, with patients experiencing profound disruption of the normal lung structure and the transformation of respiratory tissue into fibrotic material.

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