Muscle physiologist Rob Wüst receives a grant from ZonMw for the research project 'From sick to sicker: . .

November 6, 2024

Muscle physiologist Rob Wüst receives a grant from ZonMw for the research project 'From sick to sicker: a better understanding of the development of post-exertional malaise in post-COVID'. ZonMw is also funding four other research projects in which Wüst is involved as a co-applicant.

Many people who have long-term complaints after a COVID-19 infection experience extreme muscle fatigue, muscle pain, concentration and sleep problems after exertion, also known as post-exertional malaise (PEM). These complaints make it difficult for them to participate normally in society. Research shows that the muscle function of patients with post-COVID decreases after PEM. “Muscles consist of different types of cells, such as muscle fibers, blood vessels and cells of the immune system, but we do not yet know exactly how post-COVID and exertion affect all these cells,” Wüst explains. “As a result, the exact cause of PEM is still unknown.”

In this study, they are trying to discover exactly which cells in the muscles are involved in the muscle pain and fatigue that occur during PEM. Wüst: “Using advanced techniques, we are investigating how the body, including the blood, immune cells and the central nervous system, responds to exertion in post-COVID patients. In this way, we hope to better understand how PEM symptoms develop.” The results of this study can help to develop tests that can better diagnose PEM and provide starting points for treatments that help patients become stronger and shorten the duration of PEM complaints.

Rob Wüst works as a university lecturer at the Department of Human Movement Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research focuses on exercise and clinical immunology, exercise and muscle physiology. In recent years, he has conducted extensive research into fatigue in patients with Long COVID and ME/CFS.

“I am extremely pleased that our research can enter a new phase with this application,” Wüst responded to this award. “This will enable us to better understand why intense exertion in post-COVID patients leads to adverse results in recovery.”

In addition to this research project, ZonMw is also funding four other research projects on Long COVID in which Wüst is involved as a co-applicant. The first project investigates the development of a drug aimed at metabolism that is now in phase 2, based on previous research by VU Amsterdam and the Amsterdam UMC. This is being carried out in collaboration with Amsterdam UMC and Khondrion. The second project concerns cell culture experiments in which autoimmunity is investigated in muscle cells, among other things. The third project concerns the use of heart rate variability as a way to monitor exercise in patients with post-COVID, in collaboration with a number of sports physicians in the Netherlands. And the last project consists of a clinical trial in the field of autoimmunity.

ZonMw programs and finances research and innovation in health, care and well-being, stimulates the use of this knowledge and signals knowledge needs. They issued a call for proposals to increase biomedical knowledge about post-COVID, in order to improve care and treatment for people with post-COVID. This round of proposals is part of their program 'Post-COVID: research program, knowledge infrastructure and expertise network' .

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Whilst the article itself seems to conflate PEM with anything exertion related, it is brillant to once again see that Rob Wüst has understood the difference and that they are not studying PEM, but rather that they are studying the response of muscles to exercise which may or may not have something to do and/or hold clues for understanding PEM.

Something I to this day have not understood is why in such studies, as well as all the numerous 2-day CPET studies that have been conducted, one doesn't simply ask participants whether they are experiencing PEM (before doing the exercises and afterwards), just to see if there is a correlation and whether one is actually working towards studying what one aims to study eventually.

 

Looks like several clinical trials are planned some of which are: immunadsorption (double blinded), Sonlicromanol (double blinded and placebo-controlled), Minocycline (double blinded and placebo-controlled), SSRI's, proof of concept study for IDO2 adressing medication, rTMS...

That's quite something...

https://www.zonmw.nl/nl/nieuws/honorering-van-projecten-biomedische-en-klinische-rondes-post-covid

 

Good news I really enjoyed his video I saw and related to it and what he said they were noticing