Szewczykowski, Charlotte, Mardin, Christian, Lucio, Marianna et al. · International journal of molecular sciences · 2022 · DOI
Some people with Long COVID have abnormal immune proteins called autoantibodies that attack blood vessel control systems in their bodies. This study found that patients with these specific autoantibodies had reduced blood flow in the tiny vessels at the back of the eye, which may reflect similar problems throughout their whole body and could explain some of their symptoms.
This study provides potential mechanistic insight into Long COVID pathophysiology by linking autoimmune markers to measurable microvascular dysfunction, a finding highly relevant to ME/CFS research given the overlap in post-viral symptom patterns and proposed microvasculature involvement in both conditions.
This study does not prove that GPCR-AAbs cause the microvascular dysfunction—correlation alone cannot establish causality. It does not demonstrate that retinal vessel changes necessarily reflect systemic microcirculation deficits or directly cause clinical symptoms, nor does it establish whether these autoantibodies are pathogenic or simply markers of prior infection.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Szewczykowski, Charlotte, Mardin, Christian, Lucio, Marianna, Wallukat, Gerd, Hoffmanns, Jakob, Schröder, Thora, et al. (2022). Long COVID: Association of Functional Autoantibodies against G-Protein-Coupled Receptors with an Impaired Retinal Microcirculation.. International journal of molecular sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23137209
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-szewczykowski-2022-long-covid,
author = {Szewczykowski, Charlotte and Mardin, Christian and Lucio, Marianna and Wallukat, Gerd and Hoffmanns, Jakob and Schröder, Thora and Raith, Franziska and Rogge, Lennart and Heltmann, Felix and Moritz, Michael and Beitlich, Lorenz and Schottenhamml, Julia and Herrmann, Martin and Harrer, Thomas and Ganslmayer, Marion and Kruse, Friedrich E and Kräter, Martin and Guck, Jochen and Lämmer, Robert and Zenkel, Matthias and Gießl, Andreas and Hohberger, Bettina},
title = {Long COVID: Association of Functional Autoantibodies against G-Protein-Coupled Receptors with an Impaired Retinal Microcirculation.},
journal = {International journal of molecular sciences},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.3390/ijms23137209},
note = {PubMed: 35806214},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/szewczykowski-2022-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/szewczykowski-2022-long-covid
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