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Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik from the National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) at Griffith University. Credit: Griffith University |
Griffith University researchers are hoping to find a treatment for Long COVID after proving the illness shares the same biological impairment as patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known internationally as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS)).
In a world first, their study suggests COVID-19 could be a potential trigger for ME/CFS and their 10 years of research on ME/CFS could help fast track understanding and treatment of Long Covid.
Griffith University’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases Director, Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, said the breakthrough findings will assist with investigations into therapeutic strategies to help both Long COVID and ME/CFS patients.
“Patients with Long COVID report neurocognitive, immunological, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular manifestations, which are also symptoms of ME/CFS,” Professor Marshall-Gradisnik said.
“Our researchers have pioneered a specialized technique known as electrophysiology or ‘patch-clamp’ in immune cells.”
“This technique previously led the team to report on the pathology of ME/CFS and to examine specific ion channels in cells.