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

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.