An article published in Nature provides the most comprehensive compilation of research on Long Covid to date, discussing what is currently known about its symptoms, prevalence, biomarkers, and disease mechanisms. Because Long Covid does not have a single unifying mechanism, and has such broad multi-systemic symptoms, it likely has a broad range of causes and will likely be classified into separate illnesses in the future.
Read More »As part of its Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, NIH has opened enrollment for clinical trials at sites around the country that will test potential treatments for Long COVID. Treatments include drugs, biologics, medical devices, and other therapies. A protocol that will be launched n the coming months will study treatments related to symptoms of the autonomic nervous system and the first trials will focus on treatments for people who develop postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) following SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Read More »A recent preprint from medRxiv identified a gene that is thought to be a risk factor for developing Long Covid, complementing another article published in Nature which also reported that the gene FOXP4 increases the risk of Long COVID by 1.6-fold. The current study pooled data from several previous COVID-19 genetics studies, including one identifying FOXP4 as increasing the risk of severe COVID.
Read More »One of the leading theories used to explain Long Covid symptoms involves micro clots. A publication in Nature last August tackled the topic. Researchers have observed abnormal clots in the blood of people with COVID-19 and Long Covid. The clots are very small and break down slowly. The theory is that the viral spike protein binds to fibrin (a clotting protein) and causes it to misfold into a stickier version called amyloid.
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