PolyBio Research Foundation is excited to be leading the
#LongCovid
Research Consortium: a scientific collaboration between top global research teams to rapidly & comprensively study LongCovid, with a focus on the topic of SARS-CoV-2 persistence in tissue:
Breaking!: Research published today in Science Translational Medicine and supported by PolyBio Research Foundation shows that the
#SARS
-CoV-2 virus can chronically persist in the gut of patients with long COVID for over 2 years:
We are excited to share that
@MBVanElzakker
& team at
@MGHMartinos
have published a preprint with the results of a high-resolution
#LongCovid
imaging study. They identified neuroinflammation across a wide range of brain regions in LongCovid patients:
PolyBio is excited to be leading the LongCovid Research Consortium (LCRC): a global scientific collaboration to rapidly & comprehensively study
#LongCovid
disease mechanisms, with a focus on SARS-CoV-2 reservoir (). LCRC projects we are supporting include:
We are excited to have supported this new study via our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium. The project team are our incredible
@CUBoulderBN
colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder:
We are very excited to annouce that thanks to the generous support of 3 private donors, we are able to begin our CCI and Structural 7-Tesla Imaging Project in patients w/ complex chronic illness (
#ME
/CFS,
#LongCovid
,
#EDS
etc)
PolyBio Research Foundation is excited to announce a $1M donation to UCSF. The donation will allow the UCSF LIINC team to study
#ME
/CFS patients with advanced technologies, several of which have never yet been used in the field:
We are excited to announce a $15M gift from Kanro: a philanthropic fund to support scientific research established by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum:
2/ The findings suggest that multiple infectious “hits” (
#viral
and
#bacterial
) may amplify long-term neuroinflammatory or neuroimmune symptoms in patients with
#LongCovid
.
We are proud to have supported this new paper published in
@BrainBehavImm
.
Led by
@MBVanElzakker
& team at
@MGHMartinos
, it is the is first study to document neuroinflammation in the long COVID brain along with evidence of vascular problems:
We recognize the urgent need to trial more antivirals in
#LongCovid
. We are working w/
@PutrinoLab
+
@VirusesImmunity
on this Truvada/Maraviroc trial. The drugs will be trialed individually first:
The trial is not yet enrolling but we will keep you posted
Just met with a doctor who's prescribing me multiple antivirals for
#longcovid
. Beyond disgusted with our govt for providing no warning and no treatments.
Honestly I urge anyone considering antivirals to start now. My doc said I might have made things worse by waiting.
Great article about the new UCSF
#LongCovid
monoclonal antibody clinical trial geared at clearing
#SARS
-CoV-2 reservoirs. We have committed funding to support the experimental medicine portion of the trial which includes key viral persistence measurements:
3/ More specifically, the team showed that brain exposure to a
#SARS
-CoV-2 spike protein subunit drove a long-term vulnerability not only to
#neuroinflammation
, but also to forms of autonomic dysregulation such as increased heart rate and core body temperature.
3/ Long COVID is not a mystery” says UCSF's Michael Peluso MD, who co-led the study. “Our findings provide clear evidence of
#virus
persistence and sustained immune activation after
#COVID
-19. We must use this information to test treatments that might get people better.”
Great to see this new piece in
@ScienceMagazine
highlighting LongCovid clinical trials working to target
#SARS
-CoV-2 persistence. We are proud to be supporting nearly all the teams/trials mentioned in the piece via our LongCovid Research Consortium:
@UCSFMedicine
13/ Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for the Recovery from Complex Chronic
#Illness
(CoRE) will also add HEPA filters and germicidal UV devices to its building to clear airborne viruses & other aerosols from the air, and require N95 respirator use and COVID PCR testing from its staff.
Great news! A generous donor has made a $250,000 donation to PolyBio. The funding will let us collect key early data for several of our projects 🙏 We are incredibly thankful + more motivated than ever to study root cause drivers of
#MECFS
,
#LongCovid
etc!
PolyBio is glad to have supported this Nature Immunology paper showing
#LongCovid
immune dysregulation connected to potential
#SARS
-CoV-2 tissue reservoirs. Learn more about the findings here:
5/ Neuroimmune ‘priming’ is an effect by which subsequent
#immune
challenges – such as several infections in a row – can cause increasingly profound and protracted
#neuroinflammation
,” said PolyBio co-founder and neuroimmunologist Dr. Michael VanElzakker.
2/ The findings, published by a UCSF team known for innovation in HIV research, also documented T cell immune activation across the bodies and brains of people after COVID. This T cell activation was particularly elevated in the spinal cord and gut wall of long COVID participants
PolyBio is proud to have supported this new study by
@MichaelPelusoMD
& team. They identified tissue-based T cell activation in body sites such as brainstem/bone marrow +
#SARS
-CoV-2 RNA persistence in colorectal tissue up to 2 years post-COVID-19:
Together, these observations suggest that even clinically mild infection could have long-term consequences on tissue-based immune homeostasis and potentially result in an active viral reservoir in deeper tissues." 👇
Excited to announce the PolyBio Spring Symposium. It will take place online May 17 from 12 -5 pm ET.
Join to hear PolyBio-supported investigators give short updates on their projects.
Register here:
Yes enough already! These leads on
#LongCovid
disease mechanisms are HUGE, which is why we’re doing everything in our power to support the team moving forward
PolyBio is excited to be supporting this new project by Nadia Roan & team at UCSF.
The study is analyzing endometrial biopsy tissue to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying long COVID in women:
9/ They also show that problems like
#autonomic
dysfunction and
#hormonal
imbalances in long Covid can be directly connected to
#environmental
insults and exposures.
4/ The research – conducted in rats – also found that S1 protein induced a considerable decrease in cortisol hormone levels in a
#brain
region called the hippocampus. This process may be related to some teams’ findings of low cortisol
#hormone
levels in patients with LongCovid.
3. University of California San Francisco: “Use of total-body PET
#imaging
to identify deep-tissue SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs and T cell activity in Long COVID” 👉 Learn more here:
5/ Post-COVID study participants showed increased T cell activation in sites across the brain and body, including the
#brain
stem, bone marrow, cardiac tissues, and the
#gut
wall compared to people who were never infected with the virus.
8/ The findings suggest that treatment protocols identifying and addressing different
#infectious
or
#inflammatory
insults in patients with long COVID or related conditions may be needed to manage symptoms.
We want to give a special shoutout to
@cstroeckw
and family who were one of the donors for this project. They were so generous and kind with their willingness to help make the research happen! 🙌
So it turns out we did find “something in the blood” of
#ME
/CFS patients: fibrinaloid microclots + hyperactivated platelets (that you can see with your own eyes). Thank you so much to
@polybioRF
donors who helped support part of the study:
“One core question is: Do these microclots actually represent a root cause, or are they in response to something else that's ongoing?” says Michael VanElzakker PhD, co-founder of PolyBio Research Foundation, which is focused on studying viral reservoir:
4. French National Institute for Health & Medical Research/ESPOIRS: “SARS-CoV-2 persistence and impact on LongCOVID megakaryocytes & platelets” 👉 Learn more here:
Yes. We are working directly with this team to support them in translating their PET/radioligands to image SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in
#LongCovid
. We are seeking private donors to support the project (which is part of a larger research program focused on SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence)
We recently held the PolyBio Fall
#Symposium
It featured short talks by researchers working on PolyBio-supported projects, including those collaborating via our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium
Talk videos are now posted here:
11/ Drs. Peluso, Henrich and team are already running clinical trials of
#monoclonals
and
#antivirals
to target persistent COVID, but many more trials with a wider range of therapeutics are urgently needed.
We are thankful to announce a new grant from the Wallace Foundation.
Funding will expand an important
#LongCovid
biomarker study, including extending participation to housebound & pediatric LongCovid patients. More here:
Last Friday we held a Symposium where PolyBio-supported teams gave updates on their
#LongCovid
,
#ME
/CFS & tick-borne/vector-borne illness projects and clinical trials.
Videos of the Symposium talks are now online here:
We also want to thank a Norwegian private donor who supported this project on behalf of all
#Norwegian
ME patients. His hope is that the study will push back against the CBT/GET proponents who largely dominate Norwegian
#ME
health & welfare agencies.
So it turns out we did find “something in the blood” of
#ME
/CFS patients: fibrinaloid microclots + hyperactivated platelets (that you can see with your own eyes). Thank you so much to
@polybioRF
donors who helped support part of the study:
7/ Viral RNA was detected in samples from all five long COVID patients. The chronic
#viral
RNA was discovered in connective tissue of the gut wall, a site rich in immune cells. This suggests the persistent virus may be prompting an immune response, potentially driving LC symptoms
4/ More specifically, the team used an advanced
#imaging
method called whole-body positron emission tomography with a special tracer injected by vein to map activated T cells throughout the bodies of study participants from 27 to 910 days following
#COVID
infection.
6/ Because the gut was a prime site of T cell activation in participants with long COVID, the scientists analyzed gut
#tissue
obtained from a subset of patients. In these samples, they identified the presence of
#SARS
-CoV-2 RNA up to 676 days following initial COVID onset.
7/ While this group used LPS which is the part of
#bacteria
that drives inflammation, the phenomenon of priming also relates to other, non-infectious inflammatory challenges such as a concussion.”
The PolyBio Symposium is just a week away!
Scientists from our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium will give 10 min lightning talks on their research/clinical trial projects:
PolyBio-supported study finds SARS-CoV-2 proteins in
#LongCovid
blood 👉”Overall, the study findings provide additional rationale for interventions meant to reduce or eliminate
#SARS
-CoV-2 reservoirs or persistent protein in LongCovid patients.” More here:
Proud to have supported this work via our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium 👉 The study “provides strong evidence that
#SARS
-CoV-2 should be added to the list of RNA
#viruses
whose components may persist beyond the period of acute illness”
Recent
@UCSF
#LIINC
preprint finding SARS-CoV-2 antigen in plasma up to 14 months post-COVID. Samples prior to vaccine/reinfection. I now believe this is happening in at least some people. Major question - does this cause
#LongCovid
? To be determined.
9/ “We found
#SARS
-CoV-2 double-stranded RNA in 3 long COVID gut samples” says Tim Henrich MD, a Professor of Medicine in Residence at UCSF who co-led the study. “This double-stranded RNA is usually produced during viral
#replication
or active viral life cycling.”
The paper - written by 33 scientists - represents one of the largest academic collaborations in the PASC (Long COVID) space, with scientists from institutions including PolyBio Research Foundation, Harvard Medical School, and UPenn all serving as authors👇
2/ Among several initiatives, the project will use 7-Tesla imaging to examine relationships b/t craniocervical junction structure,
#cerebrospinal
fluid flow, neurovasculature +
#vagus
nerve activity in patients vs. controls
2. University of California San Francisco: “LIINC PASC Tissue Program: A multimodal assessment of the tissue-based virologic drivers of Long COVID” 👉 Learn more here:
2/ The projects/trials further address
#SARS
-CoV-2 persistence in
#LongCOVID
, plus the impact of viral activity on
#Alzheimer
’s & cardiovascular disease. They include:
We did it! Our fundraiser to buy
@resiapretorius
a flow cytometer has reached its final goal! Thank you to every person who donated, even under difficult financial circumstances. Huge thanks to Balvi (
@VitalikButerin
) for matching donations, and
@givewithkernls
for their support
“The UCSF team includes people who helped make HIV and AIDS a treatable disease,” said Amy Proal, president of
@polybioRF
, whose research foundation is pumping $3 million into the long COVID tissue program 👇
The PolyBio Fall Symposium is this Friday! Join us for an afternoon of
#infection
-associated chronic disease project updates, insights, and discussion.
Check out the schedule & register here:
The PolyBio Fall online Symposium is ready to roll Friday Oct 20 from 12:30 - 5 pm ET! Check out the speakers and talks here, plus there is a link for free registration:
We are glad to have supported this study via our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium 👇The team primarily found activation of the alternative complement pathway in LongCovid, which can be triggered by persistent
#pathogens
or damaged tissue such as endothelium
2/ We are so thankful for Balvi and
@VitalikButerin
’s support! Vitalik and the Balvi team are funding high-value projects on
#COVID
-19 and
#LongCovid
and we are honored that our project fell into that important category
A huge thank you to all our donors including
@VitalikButerin
for making the projects happen. Consortium teams are openly sharing ideas and samples across dozens of different academic institutions, laboratories, and clinics
Yes!
#MECFS
patients are often EBV-longhaulers, CMV-longhaulers, enterovirus-longhaulers etc! So if we better study those
#viruses
(including their mechanisms of persistence) in ME/CFS with the same motivation + advanced tools being used w/
#COVID
-19 we cld make real progress
@UCSFMedicine
14/ This infrastructure can be easily replicated at other centers. "People with Long COVID have the right to access care in spaces where they feel safe and do not have to fear reinfection" says Dr. David Putrino, The Nash Family Director of the CoRE.
Our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium & colleagues have published a paper reviewing evidence for SARS-CoV-2 reservoir (viral persistence) in Long COVID/PASC and delineating mechanisms by which a SARS-CoV-2 reservoir may contribute to disease. More here:
6. New York University Grossman School of Medicine: “Deep characterization of SARS-CoV-2 cardiovascular reservoirs and plaque formation ” 👉 Learn more here:
PolyBio’s core team recently met with collaborators in NY & CA - visiting Mt Sinai’s CoRE clinic, the J Craig Venter Institute, and UCSF’s LIINC study team - then attended the first ever Infectious Disease Molecular Imaging conference.
Read more here:
3/ The project is also the first in a new collaboration we will be launching with
#LongCovid
patients + top global researchers & clinicians to rapidly execute a comprehensive research program on
#viral
persistence in LongCovid. Stay tuned for more details to come!
1. Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania: “Long COVID: Using
#SARS
-CoV-2 specific T cells as biosensors of viral persistence” 👉 Learn more here:
2/ The funding will support a second phase of research and clinical trials via the
#LongCovid
Research Consortium (LCRC): a global scientific collaboration to rapidly and openly study core biological drivers of Long COVID:
Hi
#LongCovid
patients! - if you can get to Philadelphia PA for 3 separate visits, this important study of LongCovid lymph node immune responses is recruiting more participants. Email hannah.sharpe
@pennmedicine
.upenn.edu for more info:
3/ This is Buterin's second $15M gift to the Consortium and will allow dozens of new projects to move forward. The focus will be the continued study and treatment of
#SARS
-CoV-2 persistence as a driver of LongCovid.
LongCovid patients: We want to let you know about a new
#LongCovid
research study👇To participate you must be able to make at least 3 visits to University of Pennsylvania. You will be invited to give small samples of blood, and cells from a lymph node. Contact info is here:
4/ Thank you so much to everyone who helped us raise funding and awareness of the Project! Special thanks to
@cstroeckw
who made a $10,000 contribution that helped jump-start the
#donor
-funding process
2/ They additionally found that
#neuroinflammation
positively correlated with blood measures related to vascular dysfunction. The study is supported via our LongCovid Research Consortium
2. JCVI/Cardiff University/Karolinska Institutet: “Elucidation of SARS-CoV-2 reservoir and related Long COVID pathology in
#lung
tissue, fluid, and blood using molecular
#virology
& advanced sequencing” 👉 Learn more here:
8/ They found that seven vascular factors including fibrinogen and L-selection were significantly correlated with neuroinflammation in the
#LongCovid
group
5/ The proejct will run in parallel with our Tissue Analysis Pipeline that will look for infectious, genetic, immune + related abnormalities in tissue samples collected from complex chronic
#illness
patients via surgery and/or biopsy, including from patients w/ structural issues
We are glad to be one of the funders to support this new preprint 👇
A better understanding of sex/hormonal differences in
#LongCovid
can help improve individualized patient care
So what is driving the male LC immune signatures? Testosterone! Regardless of sex, those with higher testosterone levels had higher male LC immune signatures. Those with lower testosterone had higher female LC immune signatures. (12/)
And there are more projects in development! Huge thanks to
@VitalikButerin
+ other PolyBio donors for project support. Some LCRC teams are already analyzing
#ME
/CFS or
#LongLyme
samples…but our long-term goal is to iterate as many other projects as possible into those diagnoses
The study found vestiges of SARS-CoV-2 in blood and multiple organs — including the liver, stomach, and brain — for up to four months after infection…patients were over five times more likely to report long Covid symptoms if they were persistently harboring viral material 👇
Bloomberg: 'Unraveling The Stubbornly Persistent Covid-Gut Nexus'
'Everyone must know at least one person with long Covid, given its prevalence. While scientists haven’t figured out the causes, some likely explanations are coming into focus.'
Thank you very much
@Tempi_Stiftung
@cstroeckw
for supporting us via the first-ever “Johadamis ME/CFS Research Grant.” 🙌 We are very excited to work with
@VirusesImmunity
to identify signs of infection in
#ME
/CFS blood + cerebrospinal fluid, in concert with
@BjornBragee
🚨We are happy to announce the recipient of the 2022 "Johadamis
#MECFS
Research Grant." Prof. Akiko Iwasaki
@VirusesImmunity
, in collaboration with
@polybioRF
, will screen blood + cerebrospinal fluid of a well-defined Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome cohort.
We are supporting John Wherry and team via our
#LongCovid
Research Consortium. They are working to determine if CD8T cells specific for
#SARS
-CoV-2 proteins can be used as blood-based biosensors of SARS-CoV-2 persistence. Learn more here:
@UCSF
“Its findings support growing evidence about the underlying contributors to
#LongCovid
in some individuals — including that pieces of the coronavirus never cleared from their body,” said John Wherry of the University of Pennsylvania,
13/ The team is also running a similar PET imaging study in patients with
#ME
/CFS, so that comparison of neuroinflammation and vascular factors between patients with the two related diagnoses can be compared