Descrizione del progetto
Trattamento a lungo termine con terapia UVB
Con l’aumento dei casi di COVID-19, molti pazienti sperimentano la long-COVID, in cui i sintomi persistono per settimane o mesi dopo la guarigione iniziale. Tali sintomi comprendono perdita di peso, dolore toracico, problemi di memoria e dispnea, e colpiscono circa il 36,55 % dei sopravvissuti. Si calcola che, a livello mondiale, circa 157 milioni di adulti siano affetti da questa patologia. Nonostante l’impatto diffuso, attualmente non esistono trattamenti efficaci. Il progetto longCOVID-UVBtherapy, finanziato dal CER, si propone di colmare questa lacuna testando la fototerapia UVB come trattamento. Questo approccio sposta le risposte immunitarie per contrastare gli effetti infiammatori della COVID-19 in modo da alleviare una serie di sintomi della long-COVID. Gli studi clinici ne convalideranno l’efficacia, con l’obiettivo di renderla ampiamente accessibile attraverso le cliniche di fototerapia esistenti.
Obiettivo
As the number of COVID-19 cases grows worldwide, so does the number of those suffering from clinical parameters that last weeks to-months post initial recovery, termed long-COVID, with as much as 36.55% of survivors exhibiting long-lasting symptoms (e.g. weight loss, chest pain, cognitive and memory disorders, breathlessness) according to recent studies—an estimated ~157 million long-COVID adult patients worldwide to date. Clearly, this growing health problem represents a modern global medical challenge. This challenge is compounded by a knowledge gap regarding the causes and prevalence of long-COVID, leaving no effective treatments. As noted by The Lancet: “The scientific and medical communities must collaborate … and find effective treatments”. Based on findings from my ERC grant, supported by other COVID-related reports, I propose to validate a UVB radiation (phototherapy) protocol for the treatment of long-COVID patients. Our findings indicate that phototherapy induces an immunological shift that counters that of the COVID phenotype: from T helper (Th) 1 cells, which stimulate inflammation and cell-mediated immunity, to Th2 cells, which promote humoral immunity. Phototherapy is also expected to address a range of reported respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine and metabolic long-COVID symptoms. Our PoC entails both validating via a clinical trial the proposed treatment, through a strong collaborative framework with Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s second largest HMO, and conducting pre-commercialization steps to enable quick, easy dissemination on the global stage. Taken together, our value proposition is an effective, non-invasive, simple long-COVID treatment that can be implemented through already established phototherapy clinics worldwide, thereby offering immediate relief to long-COVID patients while simultaneously reducing the health and financial burden of severely overburdened health systems.
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
(si apre in una nuova finestra) ERC-2022-POC2
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoMeccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC-POC -Istituzione ospitante
69978 Tel Aviv
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