Sinclair, J.E.Vedelago, C.Ryan, F.J.Carney, M.Redd, M.A.Lynn, M.A.Grubor-Bauk, B.Cao, Y.Henders, A.K.Chew, K.Y.Gilroy, D.Greaves, K.Labzin, L.Ziser, L.Ronacher, K.Wallace, L.M.Zhang, Y.Macauslane, K.Ellis, D.J.Rao, S.et al.2025-02-272025-02-272024Nature Microbiology, 2024; 9(12):3135-31472058-52762058-5276https://hdl.handle.net/2440/143751An estimated 65 million people globally suffer from post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), with many experiencing cardiovascular symptoms (PASC-CVS) like chest pain and heart palpitations. This study examines the role of chronic inflammation in PASC-CVS, particularly in individuals with symptoms persisting over a year after infection. Blood samples from three groups-recovered individuals, those with prolonged PASC-CVS and SARS-CoV-2-negative individuals-revealed that those with PASC-CVS had a blood signature linked to inflammation. Trace-level pro-inflammatory cytokines were detected in the plasma from donors with PASC-CVS 18 months post infection using nanotechnology. Importantly, these trace-level cytokines affected the function of primary human cardiomyocytes. Plasma proteomics also demonstrated higher levels of complement and coagulation proteins in the plasma from patients with PASC-CVS. This study highlights chronic inflammation's role in the symptoms of PASC-CVS.en© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.SARS-CoV-2; Viral infectionMyocytes, CardiacHumansCardiovascular DiseasesInflammationCytokinesProteomicsAdultAgedMiddle AgedFemaleMaleCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2Post-Acute COVID-19 SyndromeJournal article10.1038/s41564-024-01838-z716480Grubor-Bauk, B. [0000-0002-4642-105X]