Fighting Post-COVID and ME/CFS – development of curative therapies

[Treeman]

Some good news. There are also tables showing what drugs are being trailed around the globe and another showing what dugs could be trailed.

Abstract

The sequela of COVID-19 include a broad spectrum of symptoms that fall under the umbrella term post-COVID-19 condition or syndrome (PCS). Immune dysregulation, autoimmunity, endothelial dysfunction, viral persistence, and viral reactivation have been identified as potential mechanisms. However, there is heterogeneity in expression of biomarkers, and it is unknown yet whether these distinguish different clinical subgroups of PCS. There is an overlap of symptoms and pathomechanisms of PCS with postinfectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). No curative therapies are available for ME/CFS or PCS. The mechanisms identified so far provide targets for therapeutic interventions. To accelerate the development of therapies, we propose evaluating drugs targeting different mechanisms in clinical trial networks using harmonized diagnostic and outcome criteria and subgrouping patients based on a thorough clinical profiling including a comprehensive diagnostic and biomarker phenotyping.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ar...GMUBmtXnq7roVPRX5Ry6SWCD-IHAD3JmGz2TpPXIxi6hM

 

[Wishful]

It's a start. FWIW, I'd rather see small trials of more treatments rather than large studies of just a few. The more treatments trialed, the greater the chance of stumbling across something that works reliably, or that unveils so mechanism of ME. If, for example, one of those drugs reliably lowered the threshold for PEM, that would be something to follow up on. If the trial was only 10 people rather than 400, there's a chance of missing something, but it would allow testing 40 treatments rather than just one.