Markers of oxidative stress during post-COVID-19 fatigue: a hypothesis-generating, exploratory pilot study on hospital employees
Post-COVID-19 fatigue is common after recovery from COVID-19. Excess formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to oxidative stress-related mitochondrial dysfunction is referred to as a cause of these chronic fatigue-like symptoms. The present observational pilot study aimed to investigate a...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Frontiers in medicine Vol. 10; p. 1305009 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
04-12-2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Post-COVID-19 fatigue is common after recovery from COVID-19. Excess formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to oxidative stress-related mitochondrial dysfunction is referred to as a cause of these chronic fatigue-like symptoms. The present observational pilot study aimed to investigate a possible relationship between the course of ROS formation, subsequent oxidative stress, and post-COVID-19 fatigue.
A total of 21 post-COVID-19 employees of the General Hospital Nuremberg suffering from fatigue-like symptoms were studied during their first consultation (T1: on average 3 months after recovery from COVID-19), which comprised an educational talk on post-COVID-19 symptomatology and individualized outpatient strategies to resume normal activity, and 8 weeks thereafter (T2). Fatigue severity was quantified using the Chalder Fatigue Scale together with a health survey (Patient Health Questionnaire) and self-report on wellbeing (12-Item Short-Form Health Survey). We measured whole blood superoxide anion (
) production rate (electron spin resonance, as a surrogate for ROS production) and oxidative stress-induced DNA strand breaks (single cell gel electrophoresis: "tail moment" in the "comet assay").
Data are presented as mean ± SD or median (interquartile range) depending on the data distribution. Differences between T1 and T2 were tested using a paired Wilcoxon rank sign or
-test. Fatigue intensity decreased from 24 ± 5 at T1 to 18 ± 8 at T2 (
< 0.05), which coincided with reduced
formation (from 239 ± 55 to 195 ± 59 nmol/s;
< 0.05) and attenuated DNA damage [tail moment from 0.67 (0.36-1.28) to 0.32 (0.23-0.71);
= 0.05].
Our pilot study shows that post-COVID-19 fatigue coincides with (i) enhanced
formation and oxidative stress, which are (ii) reduced with attenuation of fatigue symptoms. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Reviewed by: Hussein Kadhem Al-Hakeim, University of Kufa, Iraq; Nikolaos Papagiannakis, Eginition Hospital, Greece These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship Edited by: César Fernández-de-las-Peñas, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain |
| ISSN: | 2296-858X 2296-858X |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fmed.2023.1305009 |