Neutralization of AAB Targeting G-Protein Coupled Receptors Improves Capillary Impairment and fatigue ... after COVID-19 Infection, 2021, Hohberger

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Diagnose und Therapie von ME/CFS: Was lässt sich aus Long COVID lernen?
Google Translate: Diagnosing and treating ME/CFS: what can be learned from Long COVID?
A better translation

This one is rather interesting. The team at Erlangen gave BC-007 to an ME patient, and she experienced dramatic improvement:

According to the patient, her symptoms improved over many months: First, cognitive symptoms such as brain fog, poor concentration and limited short-term memory decreased, and later also noise and light sensitivity. Fatigue, muscle weakness, and POTS—the postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome that causes tachycardia and dizziness in ME/CFS sufferers when they stand up—also decreased over several months. Driven by this initial success, the Erlangen researchers want to review both the diagnostics and the therapeutic approach in a larger number of patients with ME/CFS.
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This is sure to increase the attention BC-007 has been attracting over the past year or so. While I'm not incredibly hyped, we all want to see a trial to see if these dramatic anecdotes stand up to actual science. Also, what's with them giving unapproved drugs to people outside trials? Is this common in Europe?

Edit: I hope this thread is in the right place. I'm new here.
 
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See also an article on BC-007 by Cort Johnson in Health Rising, Dec 30 2021
“Berlin Cures…? Could BC 007 Help With Long COVID and ME/CFS?” See https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2...in-cures-long-covid-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/
… … … a drug called BC 007 that’s able to bind to and neutralize autoantibodies that attach to the G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Their 2016 paper claimed their new approach was easier and possibly more effective than past treatments such as immunoadsorption that have been used to mop up these autoantibodies.
… … …
Several papers were then published which highlighted the new drugs’ potential usefulness in what the authors called the “functional autoantibody diseases” such as complex regional pain syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, ME/CFS, and others.
… … …
The BC 007 drug came to long COVID circuitously. Originally created to neutralize autoantibodies in autoimmune heart failure, the same autoantibodies were subsequently found in glaucoma, as well. When a patient with glaucoma who just happened also to have long COVID found that his long COVID symptoms cleared up after a single treatment of the BC 007 drug, the company looked deeper – and found one of the GPCR autoantibodies in long COVID.
… … …
“… … … the German government stepped in to fund a small trial of BC 007 which led the researchers to report: “we now have the opportunity to decisively advance our research in this important area.”
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I do find some of the autoimmunity theories out there quite compelling, especially the one by prof. Scheibenbogen. However, something that needs to be reconciliated is the fact that immune suppressing drugs have failed to show results (Rituximab, Corticosteroids, etc.). I do not know how, but maybe there could be some explanation. A layman hypothesis of mine is that maybe the autoimmunity in CFS is driven by a part of the immune system those drugs can not target, possibly some part of it that is even unknown to current day science.

As far as BC-007 goes, I do have hopes for it, but I wouldn't keep them too high. Namely the evidence so far is quite scant. That being said, we must absolutely follow these reports up with trials and I think they are doing that already.
 
Snow Leopard said:
The three blinded RCTs of hydrocortisone did show an effect, though the medical community deemed it not worth the side effects.
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Didn't know that. That seems like quite an important finding then that is not talked about. If they deemed it not worth the sides then the effect was probably not that great though, hence why it is not talked about.

That being said, corticosteroids working does resonate with my personal experience. Namely, I mentioned in other threads that I benefit from being under stress or triggering a fight / flight response, albeit with the risk of PEM later. I always attributed this to cortisol and / or adrenaline release.
 
borko2100 said:
However, something that needs to be reconciliated is the fact that immune suppressing drugs have failed to show results (Rituximab, Corticosteroids, etc.). I do not know how, but maybe there could be some explanation.
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If the autoimmunity is very specific and subtle, such as just creation of the autoantibodies that BC-007 targets, could that explain it?
 
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