Immune Response Could Be , the Cause of Persistent , Loss of Smell From COVID.
NBC reports that COVID has taken away some people's sense of smell for months. Now a research group at
Duke Health believes they might understand why.
The team found evidence that inflammation
and immune response continued
long after the virus was gone. .
NBC reports that the new research could
lead to the development of drugs designed
to address the persistent loss of smell.
I think that answers the question
‘What’s different about these people?
What is damaged and how
we might go about fixing that?
We clearly see a persistent
unresolved local immune response, Dr. Bradley Goldstein, an author of the paper and an
associate professor in Duke University’s department
of head and neck surgery and communication sciences, via NBC.
According to Dr. Bradley Goldstein, an author of the paper and
an associate professor at Duke University, those suffering from
persistent loss of smell had fewer olfactory cells than normal.
Instead, the team found more local
immune cells in the olfactory lining
than expected. .
What remains unclear is why the immune system
is responding this way and how COVID is affecting
the system that replaces olfactory neurons. .
NBC reports that the loss of taste or smell
can profoundly impact people's lives.
Loss of smell can have major
detrimental effects on people's emotional
and psychological well-being.
According to a recent study published in the 'BMJ,' 5% of
patients with COVID suffered "persistent dysfunction" to
their sense of taste or smell that lasted over six months