A lesser-known SARS-CoV-2 protein may offer clues to long COVID symptoms

MedicalXpress | Aug 05, 2026

Six years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are still uncovering surprising ways the virus can wreak havoc on the body. A new UCLA study published in Science Advances describes a previously unrecognized way the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein—a structural protein less familiar than the spike protein that has dominated public attention and much vaccine research—can push the immune system into dangerous overdrive.