Some arthritis drugs may relieve long COVID symptoms

The cause of long COVID inside lung tissues has been discovered by researchers – leading to identification of a potential treatment to take on the respiratory symptoms, they report in Science Translational Medicine.

Experts found that COVID-19 can cause sweeping changes in immune cells inside lung tissues, promoting scarring and driving ongoing inflammation even after the initial infection has passed. This ongoing inflammation appears to drive the lasting respiratory symptoms, such as cough, associated with long COVID.

Although additional research is needed, the team believes that we may be able to break this cycle of chronic inflammation using drugs already approved to treat the harmful inflammation seen in rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr Jie Sun who led the work says that “we hope that the identification of the ‘driving’ mechanisms will help to rationally design clinical studies repurposing those FDA-approved drugs for respiratory long COVID soon.”

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