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Australia-based Antisense Therapeutics has announced the outcomes from its collaboration to study the neurological aspects of Long COVID-19 (Long Neuro COVID-19) with US based researchers led by global leader in the field, Dr Igor Koralnik, at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro-COVID clinic in Chicago, USA.
The study has elucidated novel blood markers as potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets in the treatment of Long COVID-19 patients. Three provisional patent applications have been filed in the US to seek protection for these new inventions.
Under the collaboration, blood samples that had been collected from Long COVID-19 patients who had not been hospitalized (focused on those with neurological symptoms including brain fog, where blood immune cell changes were observed), were used to generate data on up to 7,000 proteins in the blood utilising a large-scale protein analysis known as proteomics. Industry leading proteomics group Somalogic in Boulder Colorado USA undertook the analysis, successfully testing the samples using their SomaScan assay and then the data was statistically analyzed using their Dataviz program.
Identification of appropriate biomarkers of Long COVID-19 have proved elusive. The National Institute of Health (NIH) in the US is funding a national research effort focused on understanding and treating Long COVID-19 beyond $1billion it has already committed.
