CHICAGO (Reuters) – Lauren Nichols, a 34-year-old logistics specialist with the U.S. Department of Transportation in Boston, has suffered from trouble thinking and concentrating, fatigue, seizures and headaches since she contracted the novel coronavirus. , Spring 2020, suffering from pain.
Last June, her doctor suggested a lower dose of naltrexone, a generic drug commonly used to treat alcohol and opioid addiction.
After living in “thick clouds of fog” for more than two years, she said, “I can actually think clearly.
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Researchers seeking a long-term COVID cure say the drug could have similar effects on millions of people suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after contracting the coronavirus. want to know if
The drug has been used with limited success to treat a similarly complex post-infectious syndrome characterized by cognitive impairment and overwhelming fatigue called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). I’m here.
According to a Reuters review of Clinicaltrials.gov and 12 interviews, at least four studies are available to test naltrexone in hundreds of long-term COVID patients, taking advantage of its use in ME/CFS and a small number of long-term COVID pilot studies. A clinical trial is planned. ME/CFS and long her COVID researcher.
It is also on a candidate list of treatments to be tested in the US National Institutes of Health’s billion-dollar RECOVER initiative, a clinical trial adviser told Reuters.
Unlike treatments aimed at addressing specific symptoms caused by COVID damage to organs such as the lungs, low-dose naltrexone (LDN) reverses some of the symptoms that cause the underlying medical condition. It is possible, they said.
Naltrexone has anti-inflammatory properties and has been used in low doses for years to treat conditions such as fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis, according to the University of Alabama Neuroinflammation, Pain and Fatigue Research. said Dr. Jared Younger, Director of the Institute. at Birmingham.
Naltrexone at 50 milligrams, ten times the lower dose, is approved for the treatment of opioid and alcohol dependence. Some generic manufacturers sell 50 mg pills, but low-dose naltrexone must be purchased from a pharmacy.
Younger, author of Scientific Review of Drugs as New Anti-Inflammatory Agents, submitted a grant application in September to study LDN for long COVID. It should,” he said.
Still, the drug is unlikely to help all long-term patients with COVID, a cluster of about 200 symptoms ranging from pain and heart palpitations to insomnia and cognitive impairment. In one ME/CFS study, 74% had improved sleep, reduced pain, and neurological deficits.
“It’s not a panacea,” says Jaime Seltzer, a Stanford University researcher and director of scientific outreach for the advocacy group MEAction. “These people were not cured, but they were helped.”
‘HUMAN AGAIN’ Dr. Jack Lambert, an infectious disease specialist at University College Dublin Medical School, used LDN to treat the pain and fatigue associated with chronic Lyme disease.
During the pandemic, Lambert recommended LDN to colleagues treating patients with lingering symptoms after a COVID attack.
It worked so well that he conducted a pilot study with 38 long-term COVID patients. After two months, they reported improvements in energy, pain, concentration, insomnia, and overall recovery from COVID-19, according to findings published in July.
Lambert, who plans large-scale trials to confirm these results, believes that LDN may repair the damage of the disease rather than mask the symptoms of the disease.
Other planned LDN trials include a trial by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a pilot by Ann Arbor, Michigan-based startup AgelessRx. The study, which included 36 volunteers, should have results by the end of the year, said company co-founder Sajjad Zarzala.
Scientists are still working on explaining the mechanism of how LDN works.
Experiments by Dr. Sonya Marshall Gladysnik, Australia’s National Center for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases, suggest ME/CFS and long-term COVID symptoms result from severely impaired function of the immune system’s natural killer cells doing. Laboratory experiments suggest that LDN may have helped restore normal function, but this theory has yet to be confirmed.
Others believe the infection triggers immune cells in the central nervous system called microglia to produce cytokines, inflammatory molecules, and cause fatigue and other symptoms associated with ME/CFS and long-term COVID.Younger believes that naltrexone calms down these hypersensitive immune cells.
Zack Porterfield, Ph.D., a virologist at the University of Kentucky and co-chair of the RECOVER task force looking at commonalities with other post-infectious syndromes, said he recommended including LDN in RECOVER treatment trials. I was.
Other treatments under consideration were antivirals, such as those from Pfizer, sources said. (PFE.N) Paxlobid, anticoagulants, steroids, dietary supplements. A RECOVER official said it has received dozens of proposals and cannot comment on which drugs it will test until the trial is complete.
Dr. Hector Bonilla, Co-Director of the Stanford Post-Acute COVID-19 Clinic and RECOVER Advisor, has used LDN in 500 ME/CFS patients, reporting about half the benefits.
He has studied LDN in 18 long-term COVID patients, 11 of whom have shown improvement, and believes that larger, more formal trials will determine whether LDN provides real benefits. says.
RECOVER patient advisor Nichols was “ecstatic” when he learned that LDN was being considered for a government-funded trial.
LDN didn’t solve all of her COVID-related problems, but it allowed Nichols to work all day without a break and have a social life from home.
“It made me feel human again.”
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Reported by Julie Steenhuysen of Chicago.Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Barclot
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