Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Nov 26, 2025 29 minutes ago
Medical News: Emerging Concern Over Long-Term Nerve Pain After Viral Infections
A new scientific review by researchers from the Grigore T Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Romania warns that common respiratory viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 can leave behind long-lasting nerve pain and neurological problems by disrupting the body’s natural ability to switch off inflammation. Their work, detailed in a comprehensive narrative review, explains how unresolved inflammation quietly lingers in the body and eventually affects the brain, immune system and nerves. These findings offer a clearer understanding of why some people suffer persistent fatigue, cognitive issues and burning nerve pain even months after recovering from a respiratory infection.
New research reveals how respiratory viruses can disrupt inflammation resolution and trigger long
lasting nerve pain
According to this
Medical News report, the study highlights that the real problem is not just the infection itself but the body’s failure to properly shut down the inflammatory response once the virus is gone.
How Inflammation Stays Switched On
Normally the body uses highly specialized processes to clean away damaged cells, repair tissues and calm the immune system. A key part of this involves efferocytosis, the process by which immune cells remove dead or dying cells before they leak toxic debris. The Romanian research team found that during viral infections this system often breaks down. When dead cells are not cleared, they spill inflammatory molecules that keep the immune system activated. This persistent “immune noise” spreads throughout the body and eventually reaches the brain, where it disrupts nerve signaling, lowers pain thresholds and leads to ongoing neuropathic pain.
The Role of Brain Immune Cells and Mitochondrial Stress
The review also shows how microglia and astrocytes, the brain’s resident immune cells, become stuck in an activated state. Instead of helping repair tissue, they continuously release inflammatory chemicals such as IL 1β, IL 6 and TNF α. At the same time, mitochondria the tiny power generators inside cells become damaged, producing excessive oxidative stress that further fuels inflammation.
Specialized Lipid Mediators
Another major finding is that the body’s natural pro-resolving molecules known as specialized pro-mediators or SPMs become depleted after viral infections. These include lipoxins, resolvins, protectins and maresins. Without these molecules the immune system cannot switch from inflammation to healing. The study found that low levels of these mediators are strongly linked to persistent neuroinflammation, ongoing fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and chronic nerve pain.
Conclusi
ons
This important review makes clear that long term nerve pain and neurological issues after respiratory infections come from a combined failure of cell clearing mechanisms, chronic overactivation of immune cells and mitochondrial stress together with a shortage of natural inflammation-resolving molecules. These intertwined problems prevent the body from returning to a balanced state and allow silent inflammation to continue affecting nerves for months or even years. Understanding these pathways gives researchers new targets for future treatments that aim not only to reduce inflammation but also to actively restore the body’s healing systems.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/26/23/1138
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Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/long-covid
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