Yale University receives grant to fund long-term coronavirus research

The PolyBio Research Foundation has awarded Yale School of Medicine and its Center for Infection and Immunology (CII) a $575,000 grant to fund Long COVID Research. This grant will support collaborations to define the mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 can persist for long periods of time in tissues and blood.

There is increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 may not be completely cleared from Long COVID patients after initial infection. Rather, viral reservoirs can persist in patients’ tissues for months or even years, with recent studies showing that SARS-CoV-2 virus remains in intestinal tissue more than 600 days after infection. It turns out that it exists.

Persistent viral RNA or protein has also been identified in blood samples taken from patients with long-term COVID-19 infections, but the exact nature of the viral RNA that causes this long-term infection remains unclear.

The team analyzes tissue samples

Scientists at Yale University School of Medicine will analyze long tissue samples from the new coronavirus to understand the mechanisms by which the virus and its proteins persist. The research team also plans to use mouse models to test therapeutic agents, including antivirals, antisense oligonucleotides, and innate immune stimuli such as stem-loop RNA, for their potential to eliminate persistent virus. It could ultimately inform clinical trials for Long COVID.

This new grant builds on PolyBio’s existing collaboration with Yale University through CII, directed by Dr. Akiko Iwasaki. Dr. Iwasaki is Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology at Yale University Sterling. Molecular biology, cell biology, developmental biology. and epidemiology. and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Iwasaki and CII have been conducting research to characterize the activity of human endogenous retroviruses in patients with long coronavirus.

“Our hope is that by studying the persistence of viral RNA in long coronaviruses, we will be able to better understand the pathogenesis and treatment of other related debilitating chronic diseases,” said Professor Iwasaki. To tell.

Persistent RNA virus infections, including enteroviruses, are thought to be associated with chronic diseases such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which Iwasaki and other scientists It is the subject of ongoing research by et al.

See also related items Gen Story: “Cerebral vascular leakage associated with brain fog in patients with long-term COVID-19 infection.”