TLC Sessions - Living with Long Covid Episode 69: Prof. Tim Henrich - Viral persistence and T cell dysregulation
Jan 23, 2024
Prof. Tim Henrich, an infectious disease professor at UCSF who studies chronic viral infections, discusses viral persistence and T cell dysfunction in long COVID. He describes PET/CT imaging that finds activated T cells across organs, tissue biopsies showing viral RNA in the gut, and planned antiviral and antibody trials to target tissue reservoirs.
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Routine Tests Miss Key Immune Changes
- Standard clinical labs can be normal despite profound long COVID symptoms and physiologic effects.
- Deep immune profiling revealed virus-specific T cell abnormalities that routine tests miss.
Exhausted, Tissue-Homing T Cells Persist
- Long COVID patients' viral-specific T cells appear exhausted and show tissue-homing phenotypes months after infection.
- This discoordination between T cells and antibodies suggests ongoing tissue drivers like persistent virus or autoimmunity.
Viral Reservoirs Offer A Unified Explanation
- Persistent viral reservoirs can drive chronic immune dysfunction similar to other chronic infections like HIV.
- That parallel motivated UCSF to search tissues and test antiviral and immune-targeted therapies for long COVID.