We detected SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen in a majority of PASC patients up to 12 months post-diagnosis, suggesting the presence of an active persistent SARS-CoV-2 viral reservoir. Furthermore, temporal antigen profiles for many patients show the presence of spike at multiple time points over several months, highlighting the potential utility of the SARS-CoV-2 full spike protein as a biomarker for PASC.
With the goal of discovering biomarkers that correlate with PASC, we measured the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 antigens and cytokines in plasma samples collected from a cohort of PASC and COVID-19 patients. Most notably, we detected circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike in the majority of PASC patients, but in none of the COVID-19 patients. Although our sample size is small, the detection of spike at multiple time points 2-12 months after infection is compelling.
