Hypothesis The Role of Hypothalamic Phospholipid Liposomes in the Supportive Therapy of Some Manifestations of Long Covid: (ME/CFS) and Brain Fog,2023 Menichetti

[Sly Saint]

The Role of Hypothalamic Phospholipid Liposomes in the Supportive Therapy of Some Manifestations of Long Covid: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Brain Fog



Abstract
Long Covid is a heterogeneous clinical condition in which Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and brain fog stand out among the different clinical symptoms and syndromes. The cerebral metabolic alterations and neuroendocrine disorders seem to constitute an important part of Long Covid. Given the substantial lack of drugs and effective therapeutic strategies, hypothalamic phospholipid liposomes which have been on the market for several years as adjuvant therapy of cerebral metabolic alterations resulting from neuroendocrine disorders, can be taken into consideration in an overall therapeutic strategy that aims to control the Long Covid associated symptoms and syndromes. Their pharmacological mechanisms and clinical effects strongly support their usefulness in Long Covid. Our initial clinical experience corroborates this rationale. Further research is imperative in order to obtain robust clinical evidence.

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202307.0005/v1

 

[Hutan]

I'm intrigued to know whose hypothalamus is providing the phospholipid liposomes. The paper is paywalled for me, the webpage says 'You have clicked too much', which is probably true, at least for today.

 

[Trish]

The paper is paywalled for me, the webpage says 'You have clicked too much', which is probably true, at least for today.

It's a preprint website and it tells me the same thing when I click on the link for the PDF. No idea why.

 

[Hutan]

Googling hypothalamic phospholipid liposomes, I see they are made from the brains of cows. They appear to have been a significant thing in the 1980s with papers suggesting they be used for depression, menopause and the usual collection of other conditions subject to poorly evidenced miracle cures, that is, often poorly defined conditions without good treatments and where improvements can be difficult to be certain of.

I found one paper that was a case study of a woman who developed a horrendous prion 'mad cow'-type disease. She had taken these hypothalamic phospholipid liposomes for an extended period of time. However, it wasn't clear if the liposomes had caused her illness, as she had taken them to treat depression, which might have been an early symptom of her brain injury. Also, the people who wrote up the case study thought that these liposomes probably couldn't carry the prion disease. Reading other things, I got the impression that that might not be true, that perhaps they can.

Between the likelihood of the molecules in the liposomes being broken down during digestion into building blocks that probably many animal-derived foods could provide, and the possibility that some of the molecules don't in fact break down, and somehow cause prion disease, this is a treatment that I would go well out of my way to avoid.

A member kindly provided me access to the pdf. There are pages of hypotheses and I admit I did not approach the paper with equipoise and sufficient effort to fairly evaluate it. There's not really any data to consider.

Although there are currently no published clinical studies on the efficacy of hypothalamic phospholipid liposomes in Long Covid, available evidence in other conditions supports their potential clinical relevance as a therapeutic option for Long Covid, in particular for symptoms such as anxiety and depression, chronic fatigue and brain fog, as well as potentially for orthostatic intolerance and male sexual health problems

The paper notes that a significant component of the supplement is phosphatidylserine:

Taking into consideration that hypothalamic phospholipid liposomes contain different phospholipids, efforts have been made to identify the effect of the specific phospholipids in the mixture. Evidence during the initial phases of research seemed to suggest that phosphatidylserine might be the active ingredient of the mixture [63].

Wikipedia gives a lukewarm commentary about whether ingestion of phosphatidylserine might help with dementia and the like. Importantly, it notes the issue with mad cow disease has been taken seriously:

Initially, phosphatidylserine supplements were derived from bovine cortex. However, due to the risk of potential transfer of infectious diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or "mad cow disease"), soy-derived supplements became an alternative.

 

[Andy]

Now published. Open access, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/12/17/5478