Research updates, February 20

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February 20, 2024

Editor’s note: We shifted our article format last month to include research updates on our website, while we highlight upcoming events and advocacy opportunities in our newsletter and on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky).

NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli announced that RECOVER, the NIH’s Long Covid initiative, received $515 million from the federal government’s Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, adding to the $1.15 billion the agency received in 2021. The money will be used for a variety of research projects including “additional interventions” for clinical trials. The news has been welcomed by many advocates, but most would like to see more accountability for RECOVER and the money go toward viable clinical trials — not brain retraining or melatonin, two RECOVER trials that have been heavily critiqued in the past by pwLC and researchers. Read more in STAT News.

New research in Scientific Reports from a study of 31 patients shows that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) may help provide some relief for Long Covid for up to a year, possibly longer. “The results indicate HBOT can improve the quality of life, quality of sleep, psychiatric and pain symptoms of patients suffering from Long Covid,” the study’s authors wrote. Still, HBOT is an expensive therapy not often covered by insurance and can be inaccessible as there are only a small number of providers. Patients in this study underwent 90-minute sessions five times a week for eight weeks.

Research continues to build around the long-term and ongoing effects of brain damage from Covid-19. Nature Communications published a recent study that showed four distinct markers of brain injury were raised in people who were hospitalized and had neurologic complications following Covid-19. “Our study shows that markers of brain injury are present in the blood months after COVID-19,” one of the authors said in a press release. “This suggests the possibility of ongoing inflammation and injury inside the brain itself which may not be detected by blood tests for inflammation.” Read more in Science Alert.