The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) has announced £19.6m will go towards research into Long Covid.
15 projects will examine the causes of Long Covid, aiming to trial drugs to treat the condition and investigate symptoms, such as breathlessness and brain fog.
Professor Nick Lemoine, Chair of NIHR’s Long COVID funding committee and Medical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN), said: “This package of research will provide much-needed hope to people with long-term health problems after COVID-19, accelerating the development of new ways to diagnose and treat long COVID, as well as how to configure healthcare services to provide the absolute best care.
“Together with our earlier round of funding, NIHR has invested millions into research covering the full gamut of causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of long COVID.”
One of the studies that will benefit from the funding will be STIMULATE-ICP, led by University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and University College London. It will be the largest Long Covid trial conducted so far, recruiting more than 4,500 people to take part in the study.
Professor Nick Lemoine, Chair of NIHR’s long COVID funding committee and Medical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN), said: “This package of research will provide much-needed hope to people with long-term health problems after COVID-19, accelerating the development of new ways to diagnose and treat long COVID, as well as how to configure healthcare services to provide the absolute best care.
“Together with our earlier round of funding, NIHR has invested millions into research covering the full gamut of causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of long COVID.”
Chief investigator, Professor Amitava Banerjee said: “Individuals with Long COVID have long been asking for recognition, research and rehabilitation. In our two-year study across six clinical sites around England, we will be working with patients, health professionals, scientists across different disciplines, as well as industry partners, to test and evaluate a new ‘integrated care’ pathway from diagnosis to rehabilitation, and potential drug treatments.
“We will also be trying to improve inequalities in access to care and investigating how long COVID compares with other long-term conditions in terms of use of healthcare and burden of disease, which will help to plan services.”
The funded projects include:
LOCOMOTION (Long COVID multidisciplinary consortium: optimising treatments and services across the NHS) study
Dr Manoj Sivan, University of Leeds – £3.4m
This study focuses on identifying and promoting the most effective care for long COVID patients, ranging from accurate assessments in specialist clinics to the best advice and treatment in surgeries, as well as home monitoring methods that can show flare-ups of symptoms.
EXPLAIN (Hyperpolarised xenon magnetic resonance pulmonary imaging in patients with Long-COVID)
Professor Fergus Gleeson, University of Oxford – £1.8m
The EXPLAIN project will seek to diagnose ongoing breathlessness in coronavirus patients who were not admitted to hospital, using MRI scans to trace inhaled xenon gas moving into and out of the lungs.
A 15-minute scan using low levels of the gas will display lung function and – if abnormalities are found – comparisons of data across different groups of participants recruited from Oxford and Sheffield can help assess their severity and whether they improve over time.
CICERO (Cognitive Impairment in long COVID: PhEnotyping and RehabilitatiOn)
Dr Dennis Chan, University College London – £1.2m
Up to three quarters of people who experience long-term symptoms after COVID-19 report problems with memory, attention or other cognitive functions – symptoms known collectively as ‘brain fog’.
This project will first determine which elements of brain function are most affected in people with long COVID. The relationship between brain function and other symptoms of long COVID, such as fatigue and anxiety, will be explored, and MRI scanning will be used to identify the affected brain networks.
The researchers will then develop and test a new rehabilitation strategy to help people recover from the cognitive aspects of long COVID and return to normal life and working ability. This will support production of a freely available COVID-19 Cognitive Recovery Guide on how best to offer the new rehabilitation approach depending on the patient’s symptoms.
LISTEN (Long COVID Personalised Self-managemenT support – co-design and EvaluatioN)
Professor Fiona Jones, Kingston University – £1.1m
In recognition that each person with long COVID can experience markedly different symptoms, the LISTEN project will work in partnership with patients to design and evaluate a package of self-management support that can be tailored to individual needs.
The researchers will first work with people living with or recovered from long COVID, plus a social enterprise with expertise in reaching seldom heard populations, to design the package and associated patient and training resources.
The team will then test the self-management package alongside up to six one-to-one virtual coaching sessions from trained rehabilitation practitioners, to test whether the treatment improves how people with long COVID feel and how they cope with everyday activities. The researchers will also evaluate how the package could be implemented more widely, with the aim that self-management for people with long COVID can be delivered at scale.
ReDIRECT: Remote Diet Intervention to Reduce long Covid symptoms Trial
Dr David Blane, University of Glasgow – £999,679
The immunologic and virologic determinants of long COVID
Professor David Price, Cardiff University – £774,457
Quality-of-life in patients with long COVID: harnessing the scale of big data to quantify the health and economic costs
Dr Rosalind Eggo, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – £674,679
Percutaneous Auricular Nerve Stimulation for Treating Post-COVID Fatigue (PAuSing-Post-COVID Fatigue)
Dr Mark Baker, Newcastle University – £640,180
Immune analysis of long COVID to inform rational choices in diagnostic testing and therapeutics
Professor Daniel Altmann, Imperial College – £573,769
Understanding and using family experiences of managing long COVID to support self care and timely access to services
Professor Sue Ziebland, University of Oxford – £557,674
Development of a robust T cell assay to retrospectively diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection and IFN-γ release assay as diagnostic and monitoring assay in Long COVID patients
Dr Mark Wills, University of Cambridge – £372,864
Using Activity Tracking and Just-In-Time Messaging to Improve Adaptive Pacing: A Pragmatic Randomised Control Trial
Professor Nicholas Sculthorpe, University of the West of Scotland – £317,416
Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on preventing long COVID: a population-based cohort study using linked NHS data
Professor Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, University of Oxford – £224,344
Long COVID Core Outcome Set (LC-COS) project
Dr Tim Nicholson, King’s College London – £139,619
To find out more, please visit the NIHR website.
