Seibert et al. found elevated levels of GPCR auto-antibodies correlated to “intensity of neurological disorders including psychomotor speed, visual search, attention, and fatigue”.
The literature on auto-antibodies in Long COVID (and post vac) has been conflicting. Here are the papers which cast some doubt on the auto-antibody theory:
- The Yale teams using the REAP auto-antibody panel did not find abnormal levels of auto-antibodies in Long COVID or post-vax myocarditis patients. (Twitter thread; links to 2 papers in the Long Haul Wiki link below)
- A paper by Hall and colleagues found that Celltrend’s ELISA test was not useful in separating POTS patients from healthy controls. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.059971
See Etiology - Long Haul Wiki for links to the papers. I didn’t have time to dig up information on a Long COVID auto-antibody study where the researchers didn’t publish their results.
And for the other side of the debate… there are also studies which suggest that auto-antibodies are involved.
- The Wallukat et al. study. Wallukat’s company Berlin Cures offered testing services for GPCR auto-antibodies. See Functional autoantibodies against G-protein coupled receptors in patients with persistent Long-COVID-19 symptoms https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtauto.2021.100100
- For blood clots from adenovirus vector vaccines, a genetic predisposition to forming potent PF4 auto-antibodies seems to play a role. Adenovirus vaccines, adverse events specific to them, and genetic predisposition
Prevalence of autoimmune conditions
For both Long COVID and post vaccination syndrome, new-onset autoimmune diagnoses are surprisingly high.
Treatments for auto-immunity
The auto-immunity theories would predict that certain treatments work well. Here is some data on many of those treatments.
Review post on how people have recovered from autoimmune disease
People have recovered from autoimmune disease! However, response rates are often low. Some of those treatments (e.g. carnivore diet) don’t work as well in long haulers.
BC007
Wallukat’s company Berlin Cures is working on this. Some patients got this drug custom-made for them because they’re a little crazy. Anecdotes from them suggest that BC007 is not the answer for Long COVID, though I haven’t spent much time looking into it.
IVIG
Doesn’t seem to work, but the sample size could be bigger. There’s also a smidge of data on PLEX.
Corticosteroids
Data in the middle of this post. Corticosteroids were popular and not a single person seems to have recovered on them.
The Siebert et al. paper
Severity of neurological long-COVID symptoms correlates with increased level of autoantibodies targeting vasoregulatory and autonomic nervous system receptors
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1568997223001799