A new research centre will use a study of Long COVID to provide insights into other diseases such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Multiple Sclerosis.
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science (LIMS) Deputy Director Distinguished Professor Stephanie Gras will lead a team of collaborators from across Australia, including Brisbane’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Griffith University and The University of Queensland, to research the mechanisms behind post-viral diseases and pave the way to therapeutics development.
Professor Gras said researchers at the new Post-Acute Viral Infection diseases Group (PAVING) Centre of Research Excellence hoped to use Long COVID as a starting point to understand the mechanism of post-viral illnesses.
She said up to one in 10 Australians who have had a COVID-19 infection now lived with a form of Long COVID, while another 250,000 Australians were living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
“People with lived experience of Long COVID, Multiple Sclerosis and Chronic Fatigue have joined the team of researchers and clinicians to increase knowledge of similarities and differences between the conditions.”
Professor Gras said those who lived with Long COVID had often recorded vast amounts of data unavailable with other viruses, including their infection date, symptoms, vaccination history and previous treatments.
“Because the symptoms are similar between multiple post-viral infection diseases, there’s a good chance that some mechanisms are also shared. What we learn with Long COVID should be transferable to other diseases.”
She said the centre’s research had the potential to inform therapeutic treatments that could improve the lives of people affected by post-viral illnesses, whose symptoms can range from an enduring cough to years confined to a wheelchair.
“Although we know that viruses can cause these diseases, how this happens is still unclear, hindering treatment development.
“We aim to find markers for these diseases and test potential treatments, while building workforce skills to improved health outcomes.”
Professor Gras said Long COVID was a disease that could develop three months after COVID-19, with symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath and muscle weakness often becoming debilitating.
“The disease shares similarities with other viral-onset illnesses such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus and Multiple Sclerosis.”
