Paxlovid may help treat Long COVID, study finds

Long COVID, a condition affecting millions of people months or even years after a COVID-19 infection, continues to challenge researchers and clinicians.

A recent study from the University of California, San Francisco, offers a closer look at how some patients respond to extended courses of Paxlovid, a combination of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir.

The findings suggest that, for certain individuals, this antiviral medication might provide relief from the lingering symptoms of long COVID.

This study contrasts with earlier research that showed no significant benefit from Paxlovid in alleviating long COVID symptoms.

The UCSF team emphasizes that their findings are not definitive but highlight the need for more investigation into which patients might benefit from this treatment and the appropriate duration of therapy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 17.6 million Americans—approximately one in 13 adults—experience long COVID.

The condition can present a wide range of symptoms, from brain fog and fatigue to breathing difficulties and heart problems. Despite the scale of the issue, there are still no federally approved treatments for long COVID.

Dr. Alison Cohen, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF and lead author of the study, acknowledges the challenges. “This is not a silver bullet,” she explains, “but it may help a lot of people in a meaningful way.”

The study, published in Communications Medicine, involved interviews with 13 patients who had tried extended courses of Paxlovid.

Their experiences revealed varied outcomes. Five patients reported sustained improvements in their symptoms, while others experienced only temporary relief or no changes at all.

For example, one participant, a 56-year-old man who suffered from long COVID symptoms for over two years, initially found no relief after a five-day course of Paxlovid. However, when he tried a 15-day course three months later, he noticed significant improvements in both cognitive and physical symptoms.

In contrast, a 45-year-old woman with persistent fatigue, breathing issues, and migraines experienced temporary symptom relief after a five-day treatment but saw no improvement with a longer course.

The study highlights the complexity of long COVID, a condition linked to over 200 symptoms and still poorly understood. Researchers believe the variations in patient responses may stem from differences in the biological mechanisms driving their symptoms.

UCSF has even launched the world’s first long COVID tissue bank to better investigate these underlying mechanisms.

Dr. Michael Peluso, co-author of the study and an infectious disease researcher at UCSF, underscores the challenges ahead. “Long COVID is complex,” he says.

“Figuring out why some people benefit so remarkably from antiviral treatment while others don’t is one of the most important questions for the field. We need to embrace this complexity to get answers for the millions of people suffering.”

In summary, the UCSF study suggests that extended courses of Paxlovid might help some individuals with long COVID, though results vary widely.

While this approach is not a universal solution, it offers hope for targeted treatment options and underscores the importance of further research to understand and address this debilitating condition.

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The research findings can be found in Communications Medicine.