ArticleCommunications medicine2026
Divergent inflammatory and neurology-related protein levels in long COVID following primary and breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Article in Communications medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Proteomic landscapes of post-COVID condition: biomarkers and translational pathways.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Economic burden of long COVID: macroeconomic, cost-of-illness and microeconomic impacts.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLong COVID is a complex condition where symptoms persist for more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection and affects an estimated 5-30% of individuals. While persistent inflammation has emerged as an important feature of this condition, it is unclear if immune responses from COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 re-infection exacerbate or mirror the initial inflammatory responses.
methodsWe quantified 182 inflammatory and neurology-related proteins in plasma using multiplexed affinity proteomics. Plasma samples from the COVID PROFILE cohort conducted in Victoria, Australia, were collected 6-9 months after first infection, but before COVID-19 vaccination from individuals who had recovered from COVID-19 (n = 21) or from individuals with long COVID (n = 12). To establish baseline plasma profiles, protein levels were benchmarked against unvaccinated, SARS-CoV-2 naive individuals (n = 24). In addition, we performed longitudinal analysis in a subset of individuals (n = 34), where paired samples collected 2-4 weeks after a third COVID-19 vaccine dose and after SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection were available to assess inflammatory and neurology protein plasma levels after antigen exposure in these contexts.
resultsIn this cohort Boruta feature selection and lasso regression models identified IL-20, HAGH, NAAA, CLEC10A, LXN, and MCP-1, TRAIL, G-CSF, NBL1, and CCL23 as best discriminating proteins when comparing the long COVID group to groups of either healthy or COVID-19 recovered. Notably, longitudinal analysis indicated differences in the levels of a subset of plasma proteins following primary infection compared to after COVID-19 booster vaccination and breakthrough infection within the groups.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that there is an altered immune response outcome primarily observed in individuals with long COVID upon re-exposure.
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Registered trials
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