Phototherapy treatment for long-term COVID-19 patients

Project Information

longCOVID-UVBtherapy

Grant agreement ID: 101101051

DOI

10.3030/101101051

Project closed

EC signature date 2 February 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 28 February 2026

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 150 000,00

Coordinated by

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - longCOVID-UVBtherapy (Phototherapy treatment for long-term COVID-19 patients)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Long-COVID has emerged as a major global healthcare challenge affecting millions of patients worldwide, with no effective treatment currently available. Persistent symptoms, including fatigue, cognitive impairment, mood disorders, and cardiopulmonary dysfunction, impose a substantial medical, social, and economic burden.
Based on our previous ERC-funded discoveries demonstrating that UVB exposure induces a systemic anti-inflammatory immune shift opposite to the long-COVID inflammatory profile, this project aims to validate phototherapy as a novel, non-invasive treatment for long-COVID patients.
The overall objective of the project is to establish and optimize a clinically applicable phototherapy protocol for long-COVID treatment through a controlled clinical trial, immune profiling, and patient-response analyses. In parallel, the project aims to prepare the foundation for rapid global dissemination and implementation of this therapy through existing phototherapy infrastructures.
If successful, this project may provide the first accessible and scalable treatment strategy for long-COVID, improving patient quality of life while reducing the burden on healthcare systems worldwide.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The major achievement of this ERC PoC project was the successful completion of a clinical phototherapy trial in long-COVID patients and the generation of highly encouraging clinical outcomes. Despite the transfer of clinical activities from Maccabi Healthcare Services to Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center following the closure of the Maccabi phototherapy clinic, all planned milestones and objectives were successfully completed as originally proposed.
Most importantly, phototherapy-treated long-COVID patients demonstrated significant improvement across all reported symptoms compared to matched control patients, including prolonged symptom relief and reduced symptom recurrence over time. These findings provide the first clinical evidence supporting phototherapy as a potential non-invasive treatment strategy for long-COVID-associated manifestations.
In parallel, the project established the clinical, regulatory, and collaborative framework required for future expansion into larger clinical cohorts and eventual dissemination of the treatment protocol. The promising clinical results have already generated substantial interest within the medical community and initiated discussions regarding future integration of phototherapy into standard long-COVID treatment approaches.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project provides the first clinical evidence supporting phototherapy as a potential non-invasive treatment for long-COVID patients. While current long-COVID management relies mainly on symptomatic and supportive care, our findings demonstrate that UVB phototherapy can induce significant improvement across multiple long-COVID symptom categories, including fatigue, cognitive/mood symptoms, and cardiopulmonary manifestations.
Beyond the clinical outcomes, the project establishes a translational framework linking UVB-mediated immune modulation with long-COVID-associated inflammatory dysregulation. The results therefore introduce a novel therapeutic concept that may be broadly applicable to post-viral inflammatory syndromes.
The strong clinical responses observed in the treated cohort generated substantial interest within the medical community and initiated discussions regarding future incorporation of phototherapy into standard long-COVID treatment protocols. However, larger validation cohorts and extended clinical studies are required before broad dissemination and implementation. Future steps will include expansion of the clinical cohort, further immune profiling, optimization of treatment protocols, publication of the results in a high-impact journal, and establishment of broader clinical and regulatory collaborations.
Overall, the project successfully advanced phototherapy for long-COVID from a conceptual hypothesis toward clinical proof-of-concept and demonstrated its strong translational and therapeutic potential.