Halle's “DigiHero” study starts a sub-project to research “Long Covid”
14.09.2021 11:35
"So far, relatively little is known about the development of these long-term consequences of COVID-19 - also known as 'Long COVID' -," says blood specialist and director of the University Clinic and Polyclinic for Internal Medicine, Prof. Dr. Mascha Binder. Initially also asymptomatic or with Corona infections with mild symptoms can therefore apparently have long-term or even permanent health consequences. Research into “Long COVID” is the subject of another sub-project of the “DigiHero” study at the University Medical Center Halle (Saale), which has now begun. Prof. Binder , hemato-oncologist and director of the University Clinic and Polyclinic for Internal Medicine IV at the University Hospital Halle (Saale), researches not only cancer but also immunological issues and leads the sub-project.
People from Halle who are already participants in the “DigiHero” study and who have been proven to be ill with COVID-19, as well as their household members, are invited. “584 households with a total of 1,538 people are eligible for this project so far,” said Dr. Cornelia Gottschick from the “DigiHero” study team. Blood will be taken from them and they will be asked a questionnaire about their initial and ongoing symptoms and complaints. After all, an infection could have occurred as early as spring 2020, said Gottschick. The survey, together with the blood test, is intended to provide information about what “Long Covid” looks like and whether corresponding indications or changes in the blood can be found. “As part of an immunological study on a cohort of recovered patients with a mild course, I and my working group found long-lasting immunological abnormalities early in the pandemic,” says Binder. These findings were published in the journal Immunity in 2020 (“Next-Generation Sequencing of T and B Cell Receptor Repertoires from COVID-19 Patients Showed Signatures Associated with Severity of Disease,” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2020.06.024).
With the “DigiHero” study, Binder, her team and the DigiHero consortium hope to gain more insight into the connection between misdirected immunity and “Long COVID”. “We will specifically look for immune constellations that occur in fatigue or other 'LongCOVID' symptoms. A more precise understanding of these connections could help to prevent these long-term consequences, for example with the help of anti-inflammatory treatment of the acute infection or in the 'long COVID' stage," says Binder. To do this, the blood samples are separated into plasma and blood cells and searched for, for example, immunological markers that can, for example, provide information about an infection or a vaccination. On the other hand, autoantibodies and cytokines, i.e. proteins that are part of the immune system, are also interesting, especially in contrast to samples from other patients, explains Binder. Furthermore, the antibody titer is determined so that the test subjects find out whether they have antibodies against COVID-19 in their blood.
On the one hand, the blood samples were used for research in Halle, but the anonymized data obtained were also available for collaboration with other researchers worldwide. So far, little is known about COVID-19, especially about its long-term consequences. “With the project, despite the limitation to Halle, we can help to find out more, because if everyone invited takes part, that is a very good number of test subjects,” says Binder.
The sample collection and testing is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The first results from the “DigiHero” study subproject are expected in the first quarter of 2022.