- Scientists found a new antiviral drug prototype that prevented Long COVID in mice and could also help treat the disease. In a study describing this milestone, published in Nature Communications, researchers stated the antiviral targets the coronavirus’ PLpro protein, as opposed to the Mpro protein, which Paxlovid targets. The researchers found this potential antiviral by screening over 400,000 chemical compounds, and said it may also be more effective in treating COVID-19 than Paxlovid. “Collectively, our results provide further evidence that PLpro is a promising antiviral drug target for COVID-19 with the potential to alleviate Long COVID outcomes,” they wrote. Read more about the study in a press release from the WEHI Institute.
- A recent preprint shared in medRxiv found further evidence of brain damage after COVID-19. The brain imagining study assessed 76 participants in the weeks after their acute infections and compared them to 51 controls, finding that those who had COVID-19 had tissue loss in the basal ganglia, a part of the brain involved in movement and cognition. This loss of cells also occurred in the limbic system, which is a group of brain structures that help regulate emotions and behaviors. Notably, these biological changes “map directly onto patients’ persistent fatigue, memory impairments, attentional lapses, and sleep disturbances, supporting a unified model of Post-COVID brain injury, likely driven by endothelial dysfunction and neuroinflammation,” the study’s authors concluded.
- A new clinical trial for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is recruiting in Tokyo, Japan, to test the monoclonal antibody Rituximab. The study is randomized and double-blind and will enroll 30 people with ME. It uses a crossover design: participants will receive the monoclonal antibody, or a placebo, four times over a period of three weeks, then will receive the other option. Rituximab is currently used to treat some autoimmune diseases and cancers, including rheumatoid arthritis and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Contact: Takami Ishizuka, tmc-crso@ncnp.go.jp.
