annotated bibliography

Research Project Annotated Bibliography

Question: Athletes have reported not being able to get back to their physical activity level before contracting Covid-19 due to an energy deficit months after recovery. How does the Covid-19 virus affect aerobic and anaerobic metabolism?

Annotation 1

Santos, Póvoa, P., Paixão, P., Mendonça, A., & Taborda-Barata, L. (2021). Changes in Glycolytic pathway in SARS-COV 2 Infection and Their Importance in Understanding the Severity ofCOVID-19. Frontiers in Chemistry, 9, 685196–685196. https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2021.685196 “Changes in Glycolytic Pathway…” analyzes how SARS-CoV-2 dysregulates the immune system and alters glucose metabolism. Due to the lack of oxygen supply, ATP production via the electron transport chain is reduced and cells can only rely on the glycolytic pathway, going into hyperglycolysis. Although still ongoing, new research is finding a correlation between hyperglycolysis, dysregulation of the immune system, and cellular damage. This article did a great job of explaining what happens during aerobic and anaerobic metabolism and explaining how contracting the new coronavirus affects them. Although published in a chemistry journal, it’s easy to read and understand. This article was just published a few months ago and there isn’t much information to compare it to but given that it was written by various authors who all work in health sciences, hospitals, or research at different universities in Portugal, and that it was reviewed and edited by universities in Italy, Korea, India, and Switzerland I feel comfortable using it as a credible source. This article did a great job of explaining what happens to the metabolic pathway, but it failed to mention how the authors arrived at this information.

Annotation 2

Keller, Josh. "How Long Covid Exhausts the Body: [Science Desk]." New York Times, Feb 22, 2022. ProQuest, https://ezproxyh.pierce.ctc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/how-long-covidexhausts-body/docview/2631430951/se-2?accountid=2280. “How Long Covid Exhausts the Body” starts out by explaining that long covid is difficult to diagnose as it is usually composed by a wide array of symptoms that can’t explained using conventional lab tests. It is estimated that 10-30% of people infected with covid will develop long-term symptoms. It is unclear why some develop long covid and others don’tor what contributes to that risk. We know people with long covid have disrupted immune systems that set off a chain of symptoms throughout the body. Keller talks about the possibility that there are parts of the virus that remain in tissues like the intestines and lymph nodes for many months damaging autoimmune response. Basically, high levels of autoantibodies attack your own tissues. Another possibility is that it triggers chronic inflammation reactivating other viruses in your body that were dormant like the Eipstein-Barr virus. The article goes on to talk about what long covid is. For many, it’s a struggle with physical activity and they experience a relapse of symptoms when they exercise. Initial studies at Yale had patients ride a bike and found that dysfunction in the circulatory system impairs the flow of oxygen to muscles and other tissues. This limits aerobic capacity and causes severe fatigue even in apparently normal hearts and lungs. However, they found that muscles are only able to extract a portion of the normal amount of O2 from small blood vessels which reduces exercise capacity. The study is now looking into whether small fiber neuropathy is to blame. Small fiber neuropathy leads to malfunction in automatic functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion which are very common in people with long-covid. The article brings up another study conducted by South African researchers who found another circulation problem, microscopic blood clots. Usually, microscopic blood clots form during initial infection and break down naturally but covid long haulers persist. These blood clots block tiny capillaries that carry oxygen to tissues throughout the body. These researchers are also looking at cytokines. (Cytokines are small proteins crucial in controlling the growth and function of other immune cells and blood cells). Cytokines damage mitochondria & inflame blood vessels further limiting uptake of oxygen. All these possibilities could explain the chronic fatigue experienced by people with long covid because they all put a huge strain on the body’s metabolism and makes simple activities feel strenuous. This article also explained cognitive impairments similar to the process of aging and neurodegenerative disease along with a reduced amount of blood reaching the brain. As for the lungs, most tests (chest x rays, CT scans, functional tests) usually come back normal yet British researchers using specialized MRI scans have found that there is lung damage in covid long haulers who were never hospitalized. They found that even if lung structure looked normal, they took up oxygen less efficiently. Further research is being conducted on micro clots in lung tissues and whether there is thickening of the blood-air barrier that regulates the oxygen uptake. This article was published two weeks ago so it’s very new through a late edition of the New York Times. The Pierce College Library has a condensed version of the article as it only includes the text and none of the pictures mentioned in the article. This also made it difficult to find information on who the reporters spoke to when writing this article as I would have liked to research their qualifications and find all the complete studies mentioned.

Annotation 3

Crameri, G., Bielecki, M., Züst, R., Buehrer, T. W., Stanga, Z., & Deuel, J. W. (2020). Reduced maximal aerobic capacity after COVID-19 in young adult recruits, Switzerland, May 2020. Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 25(36), 2001542. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.36.2001542“ Reduced Maximal Aerobic Capacity After COVID-19 In Young Adult Recruits”. This article explained a study that was done on recruits at a Swiss Armed Forces Bases where a covid outbreak occurred. It included 199 recruits who were mostly male and averaged 21 years of age. The study compared physical endurance using measurements taken 3 months before the covid outbreak during a baseline test and 45 days after the outbreak. All the recruits chosen for the study has a similar baseline VO2max. The test was conducted using an endurance run. Change in VO2max was measured in those who were not infected, those who tested positive but presented no symptoms, and those who tested positive with symptoms. The study found that those recovering from covid symptoms had a decrease in VO2 max. More than 20% of those who experienced symptoms lost more than 10% of their VO2 max and all were lower compared to those who were never infected. Multiple tests including strength tests were conducted but that data was not included in the article as the author deemed it statistically insignificant. This article was published in late 2020 and all the authors work in the medical services department of the Swiss Armed Forces except for one, Roland Zust who works in a laboratory in Spiez, Switzerland. This article has been cited by many sources which is why I decided to read it