Dr. Liisa Selin, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and a specialist in infectious diseases and immunology with Anna Gil, Ph.D., both at UMass Chan Medical School have developed new methods to study biomarkers of chronic inflammatory diseases.
They discovered similarities in immune system responses of Long-COVID and ME/CFS patients, including CD8 T cell exhaustion, increased frequency of CD4+CD8+ T cells, and difficulty controlling persistent viral pathogens.
Dr. Selin said, "Our research findings could point to potential biomarkers, treatments and ways of tracking responses to therapies for Long-COVID and ME/CFS, methods that are immediately needed.
Our research indicates that individuals with Long-COVID and ME/CFS have biological abnormalities, including; oxidative stress imbalances, systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation."
Working with Dr. Salerno's patients, Dr. Selin and Dr. Gil ran these same biomarker tests on two with Long-COVID and one with ME/CFS and reported,
"We obtained dramatic improvement of these patients' symptoms associated with changes in their biomarkers without evidence of any significant side effects, including routine blood work, following continuous Inspiritol therapy from 2 to more than 5 months."