Markers of fungal translocation are elevated during post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 and induce NF-κB signaling

The LIINC team, working with collaborators at the Wistar Institute, used plasma from LIINC volunteers with and without Long COVID symptoms and measured markers of bacterial and fungal translocation – evidence that microbes from the lungs or GI tract could be leaking into the blood. They found that people with Long COVID had higher levels of a fungal molecule, Beta Glucan, and that the level of this molecule was related to higher inflammation measured in the blood. This suggests that fungal organisms leaking into the blood could drive the inflammation that the LIINC team and others have previously found in people with Long COVID.