Pleased to share our positive #LongCOVID trial results. Jeff Novack PhD of PNWU opened doors, made key contributions and otherwise made this possible. A patient-friendly, low burden, all remote trial. And a big THANK-YOU to all the trial participants! nature.com/articles/s41598-0…

Note that two clinical trials looking a metformin to treat Long COVID did not shown a significant treatment effect.

Dr. Tim Henrich presented new findings surrounding long term persistence of SARS-CoV-2 proteins & RNA in Long COVID gut tissue at PolyBio’s recent Spring symposium. “We actually see [gut viral persistence] in both areas, the epithelium—which turns over every several days to week—to the lamina propria where you have long-lived myeloid immune cells… suggesting there may even be replication in some individuals,” said Henrich. Using a highly sensitive method of detecting viral RNA, “around 20-25% of the time, we see detection… all the way up until 3-4 years after initial infection” in Long COVID patients.

Intermittent Fasting Might Improve Symptoms of #LongCOVID emjreviews.com/general-healt…

Fourteen years ago today, our lab published the first definitive evidence that simply restricting when mice eat—without changing the amount or quality of food—can deliver profound health benefits. That discovery helped launch a new era of circadian nutrition research and paved the way for what is now widely known as intermittent fasting. Thank you @Cell_Metabolism @salkinstitute cell.com/cell-metabolism/ful…

Check out these talk summaries from our recent PolyBio Symposium👇 Highlights include that four groups — Tim Henrich (UCSF), Marcus Buggert (Karolinska), Nicolas Huot (Institut Pasteur), and Esen Sefik (Yale) — presented different lines of evidence (human gut biopsies, non-human primate models, humanized mice) all pointing to the same conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 persists in #LongCovid gut tissue and adjacent lymphoid structures, and that persistence drives ongoing immune dysregulation.

This approach draws on evidence from the healthspan and aging field, where analogs of rapamycin have been shown to enhance antiviral interferon signaling, modulate T cell exhaustion, and improve antibody responses to vaccination. 6/

4:10 pm ET—Eduardo Reategui presented his team’s new BARA platform using extracellular vesicle detection to identify persistent SARS-CoV-2 in Long COVID samples. Though early clinical validation combining saliva and nasal swab testing using BARA, positive predictive value (“rule in”) and negative predictive value (“rule out”) both reached 100% for viral persistence. BARA will continue to be validated using different bio fluids, including Long COVID cerebrospinal fluid.

2:50 pm ET- Tim Henrich discussed new LIINC data showing localization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and proteins to the gut lamina propria, in addition to endothelium. Colorectal samples from Long COVID patients revealed upregulated innate immune-related transcription in goblet cells, colonic TACs & macrophages; and downregulated innate immune pathways in colorectal plasma cells.

12:00 pm ET—Nicolas Huot discussed a nonhuman primate study which found that replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 persists in the ileum of a post-COVID infected animal subgroup. The team found that SCV2 nucleocapsid protein-3 localized near aggregated lymphoid cell structures in the ileum, indicating a persistent gut reservoir. The SCV2 isolated from the ileum of these persistent animals was indeed replication-competent when grown in Vero cells.

11:20 am—Marcus Buggert discussed a longitudinal study in Long COVID patients tracking inflammatory & immune cell changes over time. The new data shows increased interferon signalling that was most elevated in the sigmoid colon, likely linking to SCV2 gut persistence. The data also showed a reduction in TGF-beta production in the T & B cells of Long COVID patients, indicating persistent immune dysregulation.

PolyBio’s Spring Symposium is tomorrow! Join us on Friday May 22 from 11 am-5 pm ET (3-9 pm UTC) for a full day of updates on PolyBio-supported research projects. Last chance to register! us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi…

We Need Your Help Imagine starving to death and being allergic to all food.  And everyday trying to decide between starvation and a deathly allergic reaction.  ME/CFS is like an allergy to energy expenditure.  Imagine everyday trying to decide between doing something that makes you feel alive or deathly sickness.  The more you do, the less alive you feel.  And the less you do, the less alive you feel.  And the more you do, the less you are physically capable of doing.  That is ME/CFS.  Everyday.  For decades.   But if you don’t have ME/CFS, and are not allergic to life itself, you could decide right now to help us.  And it won’t cost you anything but an extra work day, or one less toy or luxury, or some other small sacrifice in an otherwise life full of blessings and opportunity.  Which I would not want to take away for a second.  But a small sacrifice from you would go a long way towards helping people living in absolute hell.   Go here to donate to ME/CFS research:  whitneydafoe.com/donate Learn more about ME/CFS here: whitneydafoe.com/mecfs/whati… ================= ================= #mecfs #mecfsawarenessday #mecfsawarenessday2026 #chronicillness #pwME #spoonie

#LongCovid and #MECFS trial design and measures.

New video! Tom Bunker @BiologistBunk and I dig into the messy topic of research measures and trial designs. We will all crack this code together! youtu.be/LlZRCmDd2jY

Paracelsus called fasting the greatest remedy 500 years ago. In 2016, Dr. Ohsumi and his team won a Nobel for uncovering the mechanism that explains why he may be right: autophagy

The Phase 3 SCORPIO-PEP trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that oral antiviral ensitrelvir significantly reduced symptomatic COVID-19 when given within 72 hours of household exposure. ➡️ In largely vaccinated or previously infected participants, symptomatic COVID occurred in 2.9% of the ensitrelvir group versus 9.0% with placebo — a ~67% relative risk reduction. ➡️ The study provides strong evidence that post-exposure oral antiviral prophylaxis against COVID may be feasible and clinically useful. nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2…