Extracorporal apheresis study in post COVID patients (EXTINCT post COVID)
Project leader: Dr. Vega Gödecke
Research field
- Basic and translational research on post COVID
Who is involved?
- Dr. Vega Gödecke (Project leader, MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Kai Schmidt-Ott (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Roland Schmitt (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schmidt (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Karin Weissenborn (MHH)
- Dr. Meike Dirks (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Martina de Zwaan (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Dr. Xiaoqi Ding (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Tobias Welte (MHH)
- Dr. Isabell Pink (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Uwe Tegtbur (MHH)
- Dr. Katerina Hufendiek (MHH)
- Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Marschollek (MHH)
- Priv.-Doz. Dr. Nicole de Buhr (TiHo)
What is the aim?
The complex clinical symptoms of post COVID syndrome, especially chronic fatigue, pose a major challenge to patients and to the health care system and are frequently refractory to therapeutic intervention. There is increasing evidence that a dysregulated post‐viral immune response may be involved in the pathogenesis of post COVID syndrome. In uncontrolled case studies, an improvement of fatigue symptoms after removing autoantibodies has been reported in post COVID patients. However, there is a lack of prospective, randomised, sham controlled studies. We have recently initiated an interventional, randomised, sham treatment‐controlled prospective study, the EXTINCT post COVID study, which aims to scientifically test the therapeutic efficacy of an extracorporeal apheresis procedure (immunoadsorption) for the treatment of a well characterized cohort of patients with post COVID syndrome, while at the same time providing basic research evidence for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of post COVID syndrome. Here we propose to build on this ongoing study by forming a multidisciplinary translational consortium, which will facilitate deep phenotyping of these post COVID patients before and after immunoadsorption (or sham treatment), including profiling of a spectrum of autoantibodies and immune mediators, neuroradiological parameters, neurocognitive testing, retinal blood flow assessment and physical performance testing, correlating the results to patient‐reported outcomes. Thereby, we expect to obtain important insights into the diagnosis, treatment and pathophysiology of post COVID syndrome.