Long COVID: New Results at Odds with Previous Hypothesis; Some Cases May Be Caused by an Abnormally Suppressed Immune System Rather Than a Hyper-Stimulated One; UCLA-Led Research Using Anti-CCR5 Antibody Leronlimab Yielded These Paradoxical Results in Small Study, Suggesting Possible Benefit of Immune Stimulation in Some Cases of Long COVID

A UCLA-led team of researchers studying the effect of the humanized monoclonal antibody leronlimab on long COVID-19 may have found a surprising clue to the baffling syndrome, one that contradicts their initial hypothesis. An abnormally suppressed immune system may be to blame, not a persistently hyperactive one, as they had suspected. The study, which was funded by leronlimab maker CytoDyn Inc. and conducted by researchers either employed by or serving as consultants to the company, was published online on April 22, 2022 in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The article is titled “Reduced Cell Surface Levels of C-C Chemokine Receptor 5 and Immunosuppression in Long Coronavirus Disease 2019 Syndrome.”