Antar, Annukka A R, Cox, Andrea L · Science translational medicine · 2024 · DOI
Long Covid causes a variety of symptoms—like exhaustion, weakness, and brain fog—that last long after a COVID-19 infection ends. This review examines what scientists currently understand about what might cause Long Covid and looks at early laboratory studies and clinical trials testing potential treatments. The authors emphasize that more large-scale research is needed to understand why different people experience different symptoms and to develop effective therapies.
This work is significant for ME/CFS patients and researchers because Long Covid shares substantial clinical and mechanistic overlap with ME/CFS, suggesting that insights from Long Covid research could illuminate shared pathways in ME/CFS and vice versa. Understanding the diverse mechanisms driving these post-viral illnesses may accelerate development of targeted treatments that could benefit both populations. The emphasis on heterogeneity validates the patient experience that these conditions affect individuals differently and require personalized approaches.
This review does not definitively establish which mechanisms cause Long Covid in any individual patient—it identifies multiple possible contributors without proving causation for specific symptoms. It does not present new experimental data or clinical trial results, but rather synthesizes existing literature, so it cannot prove the efficacy of any particular treatment. The review cannot explain why some COVID-19 survivors develop Long Covid while others do not, or predict which patients will respond to future therapies.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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Primary citation
Antar, Annukka A R & Cox, Andrea L (2024). Translating insights into therapies for Long Covid.. Science translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.ado2106
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-antar-2024-translating-insights,
author = {Antar, Annukka A R and Cox, Andrea L},
title = {Translating insights into therapies for Long Covid.},
journal = {Science translational medicine},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1126/scitranslmed.ado2106},
note = {PubMed: 39536116},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/antar-2024-translating-insights},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/antar-2024-translating-insights
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