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).
- This week, Nature Communications published a highly anticipated study about ME, which began in 2016. The study reports on in-depth testing of a small sample of 17 participants with ME. The study’s authors concluded that brain, immune, and metabolic abnormalities lead to the disease. Still, the study has been heavily critiqued by many people with ME and other experts who research the disease for numerous reasons, including that the study claimed to measure post-exertional malaise (PEM) without a 2-day cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), often considered the gold-standard in documenting PEM and disability. Read more on the study in STAT News and expect reporting from us on the study next month; reach out to us if you’d like to comment for that article.
- “Persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections may act as viral reservoirs that could seed future outbreaks, give rise to highly divergent lineages and contribute to cases with [Long Covid],” the authors of a new study in Nature wrote. The study used viral sequencing data from a national infection survey in the U.K. and found 381 participants had evidence of viral persistence beyond 30 days, some beyond 60 days. The results suggest ongoing viral replication of SARS-CoV-2. Read more about the study in a thread by the study’s lead author.
- A “leaky” blood brain barrier (BBB) may explain cognitive impairment, aka “brain fog.” A new study in Nature Neuroscience discovered, through MRI imaging, deep phenotyping, and data analysis, that the BBB is disrupted in both acute infection and in people with Long Covid. “Our data suggest that sustained systemic inflammation and persistent localized BBB dysfunction is a key feature of Long Covid-associated brain fog,” the authors wrote. Read more about the study in ABC News.
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