Leading Long COVID and related disease researchers are set to present updates to their work today at the PolyBio Research Foundation’s Fall 2025 Symposium. PolyBio supports some of the most highly-anticipated research projects in infection-associated chronic conditions (IACCs), from in-depth immune system research to clinical trials, and fosters collaboration among scientists working on those projects.
Twice a year, the foundation hosts a symposium to share news with the Long COVID and IACC community. The virtual event features rapid-fire talks, with each researcher speaking for about 10 minutes about their PolyBio-funded work.
At the fall 2025 event, scientists are set to discuss research into the underlying causes of Long COVID as well as projects studying myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic Lyme, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. A central theme of PolyBio’s research is the study of viral persistence, examining how SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses (or pieces of viruses) may copy themselves in the human body and drive different symptoms.
Some of the talks will share updates on clinical trials, such as the Karolinska Institute’s trial testing Paxlovid for Long COVID and trials at Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE). Others will share updates on biomarkers, such as a talk about a Long COVID diagnostics program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) called VIPER.
As we’ve done for past PolyBio events, The Sick Times will be live blogging today’s Symposium. Check this page throughout the day for summaries of each talk.
— Betsy Ladyzhets
Table of contents (click to jump to each section):
- 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET: Amy Proal, Nicolas Huot, David Price, Michael VanElzakker, Luane Spamer
- 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET: Marcus Buggert, Michela Locci, Sara Cherry, Christopher Dupont, Morgane Bomsel
- 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET: Esen Sefik, Benjamin Readhead, Edward Breitschwerdt, Jesus Eztevez, David Izquierdo-Garcia
- 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET: Lael Yonker, Shannon Stott, Chiara Giannarelli, Michael Peluso, Steven Deeks
- 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET: David Putrino, Beverly Peng, William Eimer, Timothy Henrich, Francis Eun Lee
- 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET: Marta Mirabent, Mark Painter, Marcelo Freire, Max Qian, Mario Murakami
- 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET: Zian Tseng, Michael Peluso
Editor’s note: The PolyBio Research Foundation, like The Sick Times, has received support from the Balvi and Kanro funds. Our newsroom operates independently of financial supporters.
11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET
Amy Proal, An overview of PolyBio’s complex chronic illness research & clinical trials program
Amy Proal, PolyBio’s president, research director, and co-founder, kicked off the event by introducing the foundation and hinting at some of the presentations to come. She discussed PolyBio’s focus on viral persistence, noting that “tremendous research” has been done to understand its potential role in Long COVID. PolyBio recently launched a new program called the Long COVID Cure Initiative, Proal announced, which will work to test and validate biomarkers, then launch clinical trials while engaging with pharmaceutical companies. As part of that program, representatives from over 20 leading research groups will meet in person next month at the BANBURY meeting to discuss potential biomarker candidates, she said.
Proal also announced that UCSF’s collaborative biomarker program for Long COVID, Viral Immunopathogenesis Repeat Donor Cohort, or VIPER, has raised $1 million to date and continues to fundraise.
Nicolas Huot, SARS-CoV-2 persistence: a focus on natural killer cell & macrophage dynamics
After a brief introduction on the existing evidence of viral persistence of SARS-CoV-2, Nicolas Huot, from the Institut Pasteur in Paris, explained research his team has conducted using nonhuman primates to look at viral reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2. In characterizing the lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell vital to the immune system, of the primates, they observed “marked alterations in natural killer cell populations across all tissues (blood, bone marrow, spleen, and lymph nodes) in individuals with persistent SARS-C0V-2 infection.” Huot noted that they have also often seen these alterations in primates who have resolved infection.
David Price, Mapping lung tissue correlates of breathlessness in Long COVID
Continuing the theme of viral reservoir research, David Price from Cardiff University in Wales spoke about a collaborative project on viral reservoirs using biological samples from lungs. One of his team’s main recent findings was that ongoing tissue damage may be a mechanistic driver of breathlessness in people with Long COVID. His team is now testing this hypothesis at the initial site of infection with SARS-C0V-2. “We’re finding distinct sub-clusters within the signed cell types that associate with disease recovery…which is hugely exciting in terms of figuring out what’s actually going on in the lung,” he said.
Michael VanElzakker, Long COVID & ME/CFS neuroinflammation and neutrophil function
Petter Brodin from the Karolinska Institute was unable to make it last minute to present results from the organization’s Long COVID Paxlovid trial.
Instead, Michael VanElzakker from Harvard Medical School (who was scheduled to speak later in the day) spoke about his research on Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), inflammation in the brain, or neuroinflammation, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infections. Using neuroimaging, VanElzakker found neuroinflammation that may explain symptoms of “brain fog” in Long COVID and ME. Much of his team’s work on this topic is set to be published soon.
Luane Spamer, Development of a point-of-care microclot detection and characterization device
Closing out the first hour, Luane Spamer from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, spoke about engineering a new lower-cost device to detect fibrinaloid microclots (or tiny blood clots) in Long COVID. “At present, our microprod detection relies on high-end fluorescence microscopy,” she said, explaining that the device can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Using advanced and innovative techniques, Spamer developed the Microcloud Detection and Characterization Device (MDCD), which was able to compete with a more standard model, called Zeiss. The Zeiss costs $200,000, while the MDCD prototype came in at about $1,200 — less than 1% of the price. Spamer spoke about potential future developments for the device and how they may be beneficial for Long COVID research. “There is a need for a simple, low-cost point of care device capable of detecting and automatically characterizing fibrinoloid microclots,” she said.
— Miles Griffis
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET
Marcus Buggert, SARS-CoV-2 gut and lymphoid pathology, plus Long COVID longitudinal study
Marcus Buggert from the Karolinska Institute discussed a long-term study that the organization has set up to study Long COVID over time, as well as research into gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. From the cohort of about 400 people, Buggert and his colleagues selected 10 people with GI Long COVID symptoms and seven healthy controls for a study looking at how SARS-CoV-2 impacts the gut. The researchers collected samples from patients’ guts, then analyzed their microbiomes and did “very deep sequencing” to examine changes from the coronavirus.
Among the findings, they saw changes to immune system signals in people with Long COVID that indicated sustained inflammatory activity, similar to what people with irritable bowel syndrome experience, Buggert said.
Michela Locci, Lymph node immune responses in Long COVID
Moving from the GI system, Michela Locci from the University of Pennsylvania discussed research into lymph nodes, small organs throughout the body that filter fluid to take out pathogens and damaged cells. Locci and her colleagues collected samples from cervical lymph nodes (which are located in the neck) shortly after people were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and months later, comparing those with Long COVID to those who did not have chronic symptoms.
In those lymph node samples, the researchers found people with Long COVID had changes to immune system cells, such as specialized B cells. Some of the alterations were visible six months after infection, but not later on, Locci said, emphasizing the importance of timing in studying immune system changes.
Sara Cherry, Defining the viral RNA reservoir in the gastrointestinal tract
Up next, Sara Cherry (also from UPenn)’s presentation returned to the gut, where she studies potential viral persistence. Cherry hypothesizes that SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in the gut might be a biomarker for clinical trials. To test this, she and her colleagues are modeling infections as well as potential treatments in the upper respiratory tract and gut.
They have found significant differences between the two areas, Cherry said; for example, after infection, the respiratory tract quickly develops a high viral load that then goes down within about a week, while the GI tract takes longer to reach high viral load and also takes longer for that level to go down. Cherry and her colleagues are now developing organoids, which are miniature models of organs produced in the lab, to further study how antiviral drugs might disrupt viral reservoirs.
Christopher Dupont, An update on the biopsy and surgical sample Tissue Analysis Pipeline
Next up, Christopher Dupont introduced research from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). The institute has received PolyBio support for several projects looking at SARS-CoV-2’s impacts on different tissues. Dupont explained their overall pipeline for studying tissue samples from biopsies and surgeries, which involves very detailed research into which human cell types and genes are present in the samples. Along with Long COVID, JCVI has projects studying endometriosis and cranio-cervical instability. Other JCVI researchers are set to present later in the day.
Morgane Bomsel, SARS-CoV-2 persistence & impact on Long COVID megakaryocytes and platelets
Concluding the second hour of talks, Morgane Bomsel from the Cochin Institute discussed her team’s research into viral persistence. Bomsel focuses on two types of blood cells: platelets, which are involved with blood clots, and megakaryocytes, which produce platelets. In a study comparing people with Long COVID to those who recovered from infection, Bomsel and her colleagues found that platelets and megakaryocytes from people with Long COVID contain coronavirus RNA and spike protein. They found in lab culture studies that those platelets could potentially transmit infection. They also discovered that the Long COVID participants’ platelets could form microclots and develop issues with cellular energy production.
— Betsy Ladyzhets
1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET
Esen Sefik, A humanized mouse model of SARS-COV-2 RNA persistence
Esen Sefik of Yale University presented on “magic mice,” their term for a mouse model that her team developed to determine whether or not neutrophils make SARS-CoV-2 worse. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that create web-like structures to trap pathogens in a process called NETosis; when it happens too much, the process can damage surrounding tissues. Sefik has discovered that NETosis can be suppressed by inhibiting viral replication with antivirals like Paxlovid, and is working to find a combination of antivirals that can effectively treat it.
Benjamin Readhead, Toward precision Alzheimer’s: a salivary cytomegalovirus biomarker for patient stratification
Benjamin Readhead of Arizona State University and his team are looking for an Alzheimer’s biomarker based on a virus called cytomegalovirus in saliva. He noted that Alzheimer’s is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.
His team wondered if microglia — a type of cell found in the brain and spinal cord, which act as the main form of active immune defense in the central nervous system — could tell us anything about Alzheimer’s. Many people with Alzheimer’s have a type of microglia associated with increased antibodies in the gut. Their current goal is to find a non-invasive biomarker so that he can conduct a clinical trial to test whether antivirals may help treat Alzheimer’s.
Edward Breitschwerdt, Developing advanced diagnostics to identify the Babesia parasite
Presenting from North California State University, Edward Breitschwerdt spoke about his team’s work in collecting tissue samples from people with a broad range of chronic inflammatory conditions, including Borrelia, Bartonella, and Babesia, pathogens that are transmitted by ticks. His team is at work on a diagnostic test that would identify Babesia, which leads to a tick-borne illness called babesiosis.
Jesus Eztevez, Persistence of viral antigens and immune-endocrine features in Long COVID
Presenting from the J. Craig Venter Institute, Jesus Estevez spoke about a case-control study using Cardiff University samples from 217 people with Long COVID and 118 controls to test for circulating SARS-Cov-2 spike protein. Estevez found that circulating spike protein persists in a current subset of individuals beyond acute infection and that people with Long COVID generally showed higher plasma spike concentrations compared to convalescent controls.
David Izquierdo-Garcia, Evaluation of tissue fibrin accumulation in Long COVID via PET imaging & blood analysis
David Izquierdo-Garcia of Harvard Medical School presented his team’s use of an advanced imaging technique called PET imaging on the entire body of people with Long COVID. The study investigated if “breathing-related symptoms” were a result of microclot accumulation, including eight people with Long COVID matched with four controls. “There is a difference between the Long COVID and these pseudo healthy controls [they had COVID-19 before], and even a difference between the healthy controls post-COVID and before COVID,” he said. His team is further looking at blood samples from the participants of the study for microclots.
— Heather Hogan and Miles Griffis
2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET
Lael Yonker, Neutrophil – spike protein interactions in pediatric Long COVID
Lael Yonker from Massachusetts General Hospital (soon moving to the University of Texas) focuses on studying children with Long COVID, an area where the disease is underdiagnosed and understudied. Like Esen Sefik, Yonker has studied neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, and the web-like structures they create in a process called NETosis. These structures are intended to trap pathogens, but can also damage surrounding tissues and may be linked to microclot formation, Yonker’s research has found.
Yonker hypothesizes that SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can leak from viral reservoirs in the gut to the bloodstream, then trigger neutrophils to release those web-like structures. To potentially stop this process, her team is trialing the drug Larazotide, which improves gut health. In a trial of children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), both gastrointestinal symptoms and spike protein levels improved. Yonker and her colleagues are now recruiting for a trial for children and adults with Long COVID.
Shannon Stott, Microfluidics capture of SARS-CoV-2 particles in Long COVID blood
The next presenter, Shannon Stott, and her colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a potential Long COVID biomarker test that mimics ACE2, the cell receptor that binds to SARS-CoV-2, and identifies intact coronavirus particles. The test could potentially help answer a long-standing question in viral persistence research: is the full virus persisting in people with Long COVID or only its genetic material?
Stott recently received a grant from PolyBio to start testing blood samples from people with Long COVID, those who “recovered,” those who had mild acute COVID-19, and pre-pandemic controls. In early results so far, the team is finding intact viral particles in samples, but as the samples are blinded, they don’t know which are from people with Long COVID.
Chiara Giannarelli, Deep characterization of SARS-CoV-2 cardiovascular reservoirs
Chiara Giannarelli from New York University discussed research into potential SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in heart tissue. Her team is studying samples from autopsies as well as patients undergoing heart transplants. So far, they have found coronavirus genetic material present in heart tissue, including RNA that indicates the virus is actively replicating. SARS-CoV-2 may be creating an inflammatory state that can trigger cardiovascular events, she explained. Full results from this study will likely be available for PolyBio’s next Symposium.
Michael Peluso, Pivoting LIINC into the study of ME/CFS pathogenesis
Michael Peluso has led the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)’s Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus (LIINC) program since spring 2020. He and his colleagues have long been interested in expanding LIINC’s work from Long COVID to other IACCs, he said, noting that these conditions “have been under-studied and under-resourced for many decades now.”
Now, LIINC is doing that by starting a new cohort of people with ME called Chronic Infections and Inflammation in ME/CFS (CHIIME). The program is informed by research tying ME to enterovirus infections; Peluso and his colleagues will take the infrastructure and in-depth testing processes that they’ve developed for studying SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in Long COVID to look at enterovirus reservoirs in ME. They will collect both patient-reported measures of people’s symptoms and many clinical tests. CHIIME’s advisory board will have its first meeting next month and Peluso hopes to start collecting data in early 2026.
Steven Deeks, VIPER: a Long COVID diagnostic test validation program
Steven Deeks, also from UCSF, shared updates on the university’s biomarker program, VIPER. He started his talk by calling back to prior HIV/AIDS research; when researchers validated HIV RNA as a biomarker in the early 1990s, “the floodgates opened” for pharmaceutical companies to develop potential treatments. Now, another HIV program called RAVEN is testing biomarkers for the next generation of HIV treatments.
Building on RAVEN, the UCSF team is working on a new Long COVID biomarker program called VIPER. In this program, several labs developing potential biomarkers will all test the same samples and share data for comparison, aiming to more efficiently identify which one is most accurate. VIPER will start with testing the “low hanging fruit” of viral persistence, Deeks said, potentially through testing blood samples, gut samples, and other places where past research has found SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs. But the program also plans to look at other potential biomarkers in the future.
— Betsy Ladyzhets
3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET
David Putrino, Combination antivirals in the treatment of Long COVID
David Putrino, who runs the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness (CoRE) at Mount Sinai in New York City, discussed a case series with the Pridgen Protocol, developed by physician William Pridgen. Putrino and Pridgen also shared these findings in a preprint posted in September.
In the small study, 15 people with Long COVID received a 120-day regimen of valacyclovir (used to treat herpes) and celecoxib (used for inflammation), and 12 people with Long COVID received that dual-drug therapy, plus a 15-day course of Paxlovid. Participants who took the three-drug combination reported a greater improvement in symptoms — even 730 days later — compared to those who tried two. CoRE plans to run a clinical trial of the protocol, called SHIELD, in 2026.
“We need to move fast. People can’t afford the time or the expense of paying for these off-label drugs indefinitely,” Purtino said during his talk.
Beverly Peng, Mapping the landscape of endometriosis tissue
Beverly Peng from the J. Craig Venter Institute discussed a study that collected tissue from patients who underwent surgery to remove endometriosis. Endometriosis occurs when the tissue that usually lines the uterus grows in other places, such as on the ovaries or outside the uterus itself or even on other organs like the bladder. It can be difficult to diagnose and treat.
Peng called the lack of studies on endometrial tissue “unacceptable.” After publishing the results of her current study, she plans to gather more participants for a more comprehensive follow-up.
William Eimer, Viruses as drivers of Alzheimer’s disease pathology
William Eimer of Harvard Medical School is working to understand how pathogens may affect Alzheimer’s, including processes that might start decades before a patient begins experiencing symptoms. We have strong evidence that viruses and other microbes can get into the brain and cause neurodegenerative diseases, he said. For example, he cited a study finding a potential precursor to Alzheimer’s in people’s brains following SARS-CoV-2 infection, for participants who had no signs of Alzheimer’s in scans taken before they were infected.
Anything that can make it into our brain and affect our immune response needs extensive study, Eimer said. He stressed the need to understand and prevent lower-level cognitive dysfunction like memory loss as well as Alzheimer’s development.
Timothy Henrich, Long COVID tissue biopsy program update
In another UCSF presentation, Timothy Henrich shared updates from LIINC’s tissue biopsy program. LIINC follows over 1,000 people who have had COVID-19, some since spring 2020, and collects extensive samples to determine how the coronavirus impacts different parts of the body. Recently, LIINC has focused on collecting gut and bone marrow samples, and has found changes to immune system markers such as T-cells in people with Long COVID.
Henrich also announced that LIINC has started enrolling patients in a clinical trial called INTERRUPT-LC, which is testing the cancer drug Anktiva in people with Long COVID.
Francis Eun Lee, Use of MENSA to identify SARS-CoV-2 persistence and viral reactivation in Long COVID
Next, Francis Eun Lee from Emory University discussed her work with MENSA (Media Enriched with Newly Synthesized Antibodies), a type of antibody that records detailed information about how the immune system responds to pathogens. Lee and her colleagues have found that MENSA analysis may be one biomarker option for Long COVID as well as other chronic diseases that follow infections, such as chronic Lyme. She recently collaborated with Mount Sinai’s CoRE in their trial of HIV antivirals for Long COVID, using MENSA to see how trial participants’ immune systems responded to therapy.
— Heather Hogan and Betsy Ladyzhets
4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET
Marta Mirabent, SARS-CoV-2 persistence & T cell activity in the female reproductive tract
Another presenter from UCSF, Marta Mirabent, explained that research from the LINCC program found immune dysregulation in people with Long COVID. Building on that work and other research showing Long COVID’s disproportionate impact on women, Mirabent and her colleagues launched a small study that focuses on the female reproductive tract. The study included five people with Long COVID and five controls, using various samples from the female reproductive tract and gut including the endometrium and colon. Mirabent stated that her team’s hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 may prefer the female reproductive tract as a site for viral persistence or immune dysregulation, citing it as an important topic for future research on the disease.
Mark Painter, T cells as biosensors of viral persistence in Long COVID
Mark Painter and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania are developing an innovative technique more or less using T-cells as “sensitive biosensors” of persistent viral antigens in tissues. His team collaborated with other groups in the consortium to get over 500 samples from acute COVID-19, convalescence (after acute COVID up to 45 days), and Long COVID.
“We see that SARS-CoV-2 persistence appears to drive sustained T-cell activation in a subset of Long COVID patients,” he said. Painter’s research has also looked into the role of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) in Long COVID, showing that there is also a subset of people who have persistent high activation of EBV.
Marcelo Freire, Proteomics reveals immune markers in Long COVID vagal nerve stimulation clinical trial
Much of Marcelo Friere’s work at the J. Craig Venter Institute focuses on oral health, particularly saliva, and what it may tell us about disease states. His team collaborated with Mount Sinai’s CoRE to take saliva samples during a clinical trial at the center evaluating vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a non-invasive therapy that is Food and Drug Administration-approved for other conditions.
“The hypothesis here is a Vagus Nerve Stimulation alters expression of salivary proteins associated with inflammation in Long COVID patients,” he said. The study included 50 Long COVID participant saliva samples that were evaluated before and after the trial, which included a placebo “sham” version of VNS. The trial’s promising results suggest that saliva proteomics provides a non-invasive method to monitor biological changes.
Max Qian, Long COVID endotype identification
Also from the J. Craig Venter Institute, researcher Max Qian presented on an ongoing project that works to identify potential subtypes within Long COVID from large constellations of data, pulling from different patient cohorts. His team’s work has found 16 symptom clusters with “signature symptoms,” 10 endotypes, and three distinct severity groups. This is important work, as it can help researchers better select participants with Long COVID for clinical trials, thus improving trials.
Mario Murakami, Vagus nerve sensitivity as a common infection-associated chronic disease mechanism
Closing out the last full hour of the symposium was Mario Murakami from Harvard Medical School. His presentation featured more on the vagus nerve; his team’s hypothesis is that vagus nerve sensitization drives dysfunction in the brainstem, which could drive some symptoms of chronic disease. This part of the brain, he said, contains nuclei that regulate the sickness-behavior response, as well as pain modulation, nausea, and more. This persistent vagus-nerve activation may produce sensitization which may contribute to brainstem inflammation. His team’s preliminary results from a cohort of 23 people with Long COVID and 23 people with ME found dysfunction in the brainstem of people with both diseases, compared to 14 healthy controls.
— Miles Griffis
5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET
Zian Tseng, The COVID POST SCD (POstmortem Systematic invesTigation of Sudden Cardiac Death) study
Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the U.S., said UCSF researcher Zian Tseng, but it’s not well understood. Since 2011, Tseng has collaborated with San Francisco’s medical examiner’s office on a study looking at these sudden deaths and seeking to find the true underlying causes, which are often not, in fact, heart issues but other issues like overdoses.
After COVID-19 hit, Tseng started working with the LIINC program to examine the connections between sudden deaths and COVID-19. The team has collected detailed tissue samples from 54 sudden death victims since 2020, and found some have evidence of recent SARS-CoV-2 infection — even in some cases without symptoms. Tseng is also expanding the research to other viruses, like EBV.
“Those of us who rely on government funding are grateful for alternative sources like PolyBio’s generous support,” Tseng said.
Michael Peluso, Supporting the immune response in Long COVID: INTERRUPT-LC — and announcing COMBAT-LC
UCSF’s Michael Peluso spoke again to close out the symposium, sharing more details about the INTERRUPT-LC trial and announcing a new combination trial, called COMBAT-LC. Marc Elia from Invivyd was set to speak last about next-generation monoclonal antibodies for Long COVID treatment, but could not make it at the last minute; Proal noted that PolyBio may later share a recorded talk from him.
The Long COVID field needs to be “chasing all leads,” Peluso said, and both of the trials he discussed move that idea forward. INTERRUPT-LC is testing the drug Anktiva, which acts on interleukin-15, an important signalling protein in the immune system. Anktiva is FDA-approved for some cancers, and UCSF is also studying it in HIV research. Peluso and his colleagues hypothesize that it can improve coordination between T-cells and natural killer cells in people with Long COVID.
The INTERRUPT-LC trial has just one arm, no placebo, because it is difficult to do blinding with this drug, Peluso said. While the trial’s primary outcomes are safety and tolerability, the team plans to do the “full suite” of LIINC testing to see how the drug impacts participants’ immune systems. The trial “opened this week and screened our first participant today,” he said.
Next, Peluso announced another new trial, called COMBAT-LC, which will test Paxlovid and the monoclonal antibody Pemgarda in combination. A recent preprint shared that Pemgarda improved Long COVID symptoms in a case series, adding to anecdotal reports from people who have tried the drug. This will also be the first Long COVID clinical trial to stratify participants based on antigen positivity in their blood, Peluso said, and it may include a crossover option allowing people who initially receive a placebo to try Pemgarda later. The study is still awaiting some logistical approvals and funding before it can officially launch, Peluso noted, but he hopes that it will happen in early 2026.
We don’t know how SARS-CoV-2 persists in the body, Peluso said during his talk; just at today’s symposium, researchers presented evidence that it might be inactive genetic material, active genetic material, or even active viral replication. The COMBAT-LC trial will be a significant step toward understanding viral persistence.
— Betsy Ladyzhets
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