They call for future trials exploring immunomodulatory therapies to further investigate this finding.
We thank the research team for their important work!
Study link: www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
They call for future trials exploring immunomodulatory therapies to further investigate this finding.
We thank the research team for their important work!
Study link: www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
Results did show that patients who reported improvement in their symptoms - both in the treatment and control groups - experienced declines in their cytokine levels over the course of the trial, pointing to immune dysregulation as a driver of LC.
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3. Perhaps 14 days is not long enough to truly change symptoms. Clinical trials of 14 days of Paxlovid have also failed to yield benefit.
Ultimately, this outcome is disappointing but provides valuable information!
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Additionally, some LC patients may have completely different root causes such as autoimmunity, which would not be helped by an antiviral drug.
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2) Not all Long COVID patients might have persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus - meaning metformin would have no effect. For patients with reactivation of other viruses, such as EBV, CMV, or HHV-6, metformin would not help to reduce viral load.
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However, perhaps metformin can only penetrate into certain tissue types within the body. If, in LC patients, the virus has already penetrated into parts of the body that the drug can't reach, it's not going to be able to work as an antiviral in those areas.
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Metformin is hypothesized to prevent LC by reducing viral load during acute infection. As an mTOR inhibitor, it interrupts a biochemical pathway that the virus uses to replicate - meaning it's an effective antiviral.
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Metformin in particular seemed worth investigating, because not one but two clinical trials showed it reduced the risk of developing Long COVID if taken during acute infection.
Why would metformin help in prevention, but not treatment of LC?
We can think of a few reasons:
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Subjects received one of the following for 14 days:
👉oral metformin (uptitrated to 1500 mg/d)
👉UDCA (900 mg once daily)
👉double placebo for 14 days (1:1:1)
Ultimately they found no benefit of either treatment compared to placebo.
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Screenshot of article title, background and objective from this paper: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-04883?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
📢 Clinical trial shows 14 days of metformin has no impact on Long COVID symptoms
In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, South Korean researchers tested whether metformin or ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) worked to treat Long COVID symptoms.
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You can also DM us here or email support@longcovidlabs.org 🙂
06.03.2026 12:32 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
If you are interested in trying thymosin alpha 1 - or any other anti-SARS-CoV-2 treatments - reach out today!
You can ask your doctor to submit an application using the link here:
longcovidlabs.org/post/patient...
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One treatment which we believe may be promising - but hasn't yet been formally studied - is thymosin alpha 1 peptide. Our research suggests that it may have antiviral properties that can help people clear SARS-CoV-2.
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We are focusing primarily on root-cause treatments targeting SARS-CoV-2 persistence, such as antivirals, monoclonals, and immunomodulators.
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📣 Long COVID Labs Patient Grant Fund Update
Attention all:
Our Patient Grant Fund still has limited funds remaining for patients who need help accessing Long COVID treatments!
If you are interested in trying a Long COVID treatment that you're unable to afford, our Grant Fund can help!
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It's pretty exciting to see science advance every day, and begin to provide explanations for the experiences Long COVID patients have reported over the years.
Stay tuned!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Essentially, this work clarifies a mechanistic pathway that holds relevance not only for LC, but potentially for other infection-associated chronic conditions as well!
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They found that the non-neuro patients' stool did not impact the mice in the same way -- meaning neurological symptoms likely have their own specific etiology in the gut microbiome.
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Patients with neurological symptoms have a unique microbiome profile 🧠
Even more interesting: the researchers performed the same experiment using stool samples from LC patients without neurological symptoms.
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Researchers measured these GBEV's in the bloodstream of the mice, post-transplant - and found that the circulating GBEV's are responsible for many of the biological changes observed.
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Why did this happen?
Specifically, the researchers examined the role of gut bacterial extracellular vesicles (GBEV). These are signalling molecules released by gut bacteria in order to communicate with other and influence their host environment.
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They then collected stool samples from LC patients and transplanted these samples into germ-free mice.
After receiving the transplants, the mice developed intestinal barrier disruption and neuroinflammatory symptoms.
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Here, Canadian researchers demonstrated that Long COVID is associated with a microbiome signature that promotes neuroinflammation.
First, they identified the microbiome profile of LC patients with neurological symptoms.
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Screenshot of article title, author info, and abstract from this paper: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.28.708602v1
New study shows relationship between intestinal dysbiosis and neurological symptoms in LC 🦠🧠
Over the years, we have seen some Long COVID patients report dramatic improvements with microbiome-based interventions. This study provides a possible explanation as to why.
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Black-background WHN graphic with white and pink text. At the top is the logo text “whn.global” with a pink dot. Large central headline: “COVID isn’t ‘just a cold.’” Below that: “It can affect the brain, heart, and immune system, even months later.” In bright pink near the lower middle: “Prevention matters.” At the bottom: “World Health Network - Science for a safer, healthier world.”
COVID is not “just a cold.” Even mild or asymptomatic infections can cause lasting health effects, damaging blood vessels and organs, affecting the brain, and weakening the immune system.
03.03.2026 12:15 — 👍 105 🔁 57 💬 3 📌 2
Important - but sobering - article on Covid's neurological impacts.
It's unfortunately quite rare to see mainstream news articles talking about the risks of COVID with this degree of seriousness - highly recommend you check this article out! 👇
It's just around the corner...
#LongCovidAwarenessDay On X (because BS doesn't have Spaces), March 15th- 20 guest speakers ALL in 24 hrs. Names like- J Howard, M Hoerger, J Sullivan, E Justin, Y BarYam and many more... More info to come. @longcovidlabs.bsky.social @thewhn.bsky.social
The research is encouraged by what they found, as their testing methods did find "demonstrable abnormalities" in this subgroup of 3 patients.
Moving forward they hope to continue developing this non-invasive protocol - it could make diagnosis and treatment of SFN much more accessible! 🙏
And they compared its rate of detecting to SFN to other more established methods.
In this study, 3 of the 9 patients were identified as having SFN. This is somewhat in line with prior studies diagnosing around 50% - as it's hard to completely extrapolate based on a small study of 9 patients.
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Specifically, the test looked at 4 components:
(1) sympathetic skin responses
(2) cutaneous silent period
(3) quantitative thermal thresholds
(4) electrochemical skin conductance
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