- A new review paper published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences focuses on how Long COVID impacts the nervous and immune systems. Yale’s Akiko Iwasaki and other authors compiled results from several high-quality studies, including autopsy and animal model studies. They stated that neuroimmune mechanisms of the disease likely include SARS-CoV-2 invading the nervous system, persistent inflammation and tissue damage, reservoirs of persistent viral RNA, and autoimmunity. The authors concluded that Long COVID is a “serious and growing public health crisis,” and that their findings highlight a need to both prevent and treat the disease.
- Another study has found potential biomarkers in the blood of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). In the study, published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, researchers compared advanced blood test results of 1,455 people with ME with over 130,000 controls and found 511 potential blood-based biomarkers. The markers included signs of chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and liver disease, and could predict severity. “These results keep alive the future ambition of a blood-based biomarker panel for accurate ME/CFS diagnosis,” the authors concluded.
- The Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC) launched a new clinical trial and research study platform for Long COVID and associated diseases: the PLRC Registry. Anyone 18 years and older with Long COVID and related diseases can join, as well as allies who want to help push Long COVID research forward. Participants who join the registry can help the researchers track their diseases over time by taking surveys and sharing data from wearables and/or electronic health records.
