Research updates, March 18

Last week, researchers met for the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco, California. While the conference focuses on HIV and related diseases, it has included research on Long COVID and COVID-19 in recent years due to their impacts on people with HIV. This year, there were at least 24 papers that spotlit Long COVID and 37 on COVID-19. Note, results presented at conferences like this one are usually preliminary and have not yet gone through peer review.

• One large RECOVER electronic cohort study found an increased risk of Long COVID in people with HIV. The study evaluated two cohorts totaling over 30,000 people with HIV and over three million people without HIV. Authors wrote that the study highlights “challenges and possible disparities in recognizing and diagnosing Long COVID.” The study adds further evidence on the increased risk of Long COVID in people with HIV, which we reported on in 2023.
   

• Some studies identified potential biomarkers for Long COVID including white and grey matter in the brain as well as plasma — the latter study’s model identified people with Long COVID with 99% accuracy. Another noteworthy study assessed people with Long COVID who had post-exertional malaise (PEM) and compared them with matched controls. The small study found that “coagulation [blood clots] and inflammatory problems linked to metabolic changes” were associated with PEM.
   

• A new clinical trial for Ensitrelvir found the antiviral reduced the chance of developing COVID-19 by 67% after participants were exposed to the disease. The double-blinded trial, called SCORPIO-PEP, had over 2,000 participants and assessed the drug over a five-day course following exposure to COVID-19 as post-exposure prophylactic (PEP). “This is the first clinical trial of an oral antiviral drug to show significant protection against COVID-19,” one of the authors said in a press release.