Preliminary treatment options to address long COVID symptoms were recently unveiled through the NIH’s RECOVER program.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a long COVID clinical trial through the RECOVER Initiative. Open enrollment for the second phase of clinical trials began on July 31, 2023. The trials will evaluate up to four potential treatment methods for long COVID. Long COVID is the continuation of disease symptoms that follow a SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the NIH.
Methods of treatment for long COVID include drugs, biologics, medical devices, and other therapies. Researchers developed trials with feedback from patients, experts in the symptom areas and treatment methods, and reviewed hundreds of treatment proposals.
RECOVER research
The RECOVER program is part of the NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative. The trials were informed by the program’s research studies conducted over the past 2 years. Trials focused on several symptoms described as the most difficult to recover from by long COVID patients.
RECOVER is a nationwide research program designed to understand, prevent, and treat long COVID. The beginning stage of the initiative launched an observational, multi-site study that examined and followed patients throughout their experience with long COVID. The research aimed to understand why some individuals develop long-term symptoms while others recover.
“Hundreds of RECOVER investigators and research participants are working hard to uncover the biologic causes of long COVID. The condition affects nearly all body systems and presents with more than 200 symptoms,” said Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and co-lead of the RECOVER Initiative.
Conducting Trials
RECOVER has partnered with NIH to design and conduct trials that have the potential to provide long COVID patients with relief sooner than individual studies. The trials that launched in July 2023 will focus on viral persistence and cognitive dysfunction through an adaptive research design called “platform protocols.”
The platform protocols include RECOVER-VITAL (including treatments that target disease persistence), RECOVER-NEURO (which examines accessible interventions for COVID related cognitive dysfunction), RECOVER-SLEEP (that monitors changes in sleep patterns or ability to sleep after infection), RECOVER-AUTONOMIC (studying autonomic nervous system complications from the disease), and a fifth platform protocol that will focus on exercise intolerance and fatigue.
“Clinical trials to test effective treatments and interventions are a core component of the whole-of-government response to long COVID,” said Adm. Rachel L. Levine, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
RECOVER aims to enroll a study population that is representative of communities most affected by long COVID. Studies will be inclusive, partnering with local communities to raise awareness about long COVID and offer individuals the opportunity to participate in trials.
Additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments are expected in the coming months. Trials will continue to enroll patients on a rolling basis. For people aged 18 and older who want to learn more about the trials should search “RECOVER” at the NIH site ClinicalTrials.gov to learn more and find enrollment sites across the United States.