unCOVer Erlangen - ME/CFS

Project description

The Erlangen researchers previously succeeded in detecting two autoantibodies, M2-AAb and β2-AAb, in patients with ME/CFS, analogous to Long COVID. They also found the first indications of blood cell changes in Long COVID that may affect the body's microcirculation.

Based on the previous experience of administering a potential drug candidate (BC 007) to a small number of Long COVID patients, the researchers carried out a treatment attempt with BC 007 in a patient with a long-known ME/CFS, similar to the healing trials with the aptamer BC 007 (Berlin Cures GmbH, Berlin). According to the patient, symptoms improved over many months: First, cognitive symptoms such as brain fog, poor concentration and limited short-term memory decreased, and later also noise and light sensitivity. Fatigue, muscle weakness, and POTS—the postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome that causes tachycardia and dizziness in ME/CFS sufferers when they stand up—also decreased over several months.

Under this project, driven by this initial success, the Erlangen researchers want to review both the diagnostics and the therapeutic approach in a larger number of patients with ME/CFS.

(Description adapted from project website: see link above)