Immune Assault May Explain Loss of Smell in Long Covid

"We are hopeful that modulating the abnormal immune response or repair processes within the nose of these patients could help to at least partially restore a sense of smell," says Bradley Goldstein. By Ivan Dudka/Shutterstock

An ongoing immune assault on olfactory nerve cells and an associated decline in the number of those cells may explain why some people fail to recover their sense of smell after COVID-19.

The finding, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, provides an important insight into a vexing problem that has plagued millions who have not fully recovered their sense of smell after COVID-19.