Can we break the vicious cycle of ME/CFS, Klaus Wirth? (Interview 2025)

Prof Klaus Wirth is a medical doctor and adjunct professor at the Institute of Pharmacology at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2022, he acts as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Managing Director of Mitodicure, a pharmaceutical company focused on developing oral therapeutics to address significant unmet medical needs in diseases with chronic fatigue, with the specific aim to treat patients with post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS) suffering from exertional intolerance and post-exertional malaise (PEM). Prof Wirth was previously a senior researcher at Sanofi, which he joined in 1984. Prof Wirth worked as a pharmacologist in the fields of cardiovascular, bradykinin antagonism, cerebral blood flow, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmias, sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX blockers), endocrinology, diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, dysphagia, and immunology. Prof Wirth has published several scientific articles, outlining central hypotheses and attempts to explain the complex symptomatology of ME/CFS and Long COVID/post-COVID syndrome.

In the video, he answers the following questions:

1. What are the key findings of your research regarding the role of autoimmunity and ion imbalance in ME/CFS?

2. What therapeutic approaches are available to address this?

3. What are the next steps to move this issue forward?

4. How much longer will it take? What should we expect?