Open Study to Investigate the Efficacy of Abrocitinib in Adult Participants with Severe Fatigue from Post COVID Condition/Long COVID (CLEAR-LC)

You love to see drugs getting tested, even when the cohort definition is a bit iffy.
This one seems to have come out of left field.

I looked through the clinical trial data and it wasn't obvious who the researcher behind this is. The only name I found was this guy who is the boss of virology at Beth Israel and has quite a nice CV. I'd imagine he's the ultimate responsible party but not actually driving it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Barouch

Anyway Abrocitinib is a JAK inhibitor, widely available from Pfizer and usually used for tricky cases of dermatitis.

It is a selective inhibitor of the enzyme janus kinase 1 (JAK1).[15] It inhibits JAK1 by 28 fold of selectivity over JAK2 and more than 340 fold of selectivity over JAK3. Two mechanisms are involved in atopic dermatitis, one involves epidermal barrier disruptions, and the other one is cutaneous inflammation due to the immune system over response. Acute inflammation in AD typically involves IL-13, IL-4, and IL-33.[17] Consequently, inhibiting JAK1 results in suppressing the signaling cytokines IL-4, IL-3, and IL-31. Many other cytokines are involved in AD and mediated by JAK1 such as type II cytokine receptors for IL-22, IL-19, IL-10, IL-20 and glycoprotein 130 (gp130) including IL-6 and IL-12 which are also associated with JAK2 and TYK2; IFN-α and INF-β signal.[17][18]

Pharmacokinetics
Abrocitinib is quickly absorbed from the gut and generally reaches highest blood plasma concentrations within one hour. Only 1.0 to 4.4% of the dose are found unmetabolized in the urine.[19] The half-life of abrocitinib is 5 hours and the absorption is not affected by food. A higher dose (400–800 mg) would delay the absorption to 1.5–4 hours. A steady plasma concentration of abrocitinib can be obtained within 48 hours of treatments.[17][18] The dose is one daily, and abrocitinib is metabolized mainly by cytochrome P450 (CYP450) in liver such as CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP3A4 and CYP2B6. The major metabolites of abrocitinib are pyrrolidinone pyrimidine (inactive), 2-hydroxypropyl (active), and 3-hydroxypropyl (active).[17][18] Dose reduction to half is advisable when abrocitinib is taken with strong inhibitors of CYP2C19. According to phase 1 clinical trials on abrocitinib oral dose of 200 mg, hepatic functions were not altered. However, it is advisable to reduce the dose by half in case of reduced renal function. In serious hepatic impairment and final stages of renal disease, Abrocitinib is contraindicated.[17] Some changes may occur during the abrocitinib treatment such as the reduction in platelet counts after 4 weeks of starting Abrocitinib. However, they will return to normal at the end of the treatment. An increase in LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol levels was also recorded after 4 weeks of Abrocitinib treatment. The increased levels depend on the abrocitinib dose (15% increase in LDL with 200 mg dose versus 10% increase with 100 mg).[17][18]
 
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Eligible volunteers will participate in six in-person visits over 4 months. These visits include review of medical and medication history, answering questionnaires, blood, urine, and nasal swab specimen collection, physical exams, and contraceptive and medication counseling.

Do they fully understand what severe Long Covid can mean?

Exclusion criteria:
  • Blood clotting conditions

Do they check for clotting issues that some pwLC report? Most would probably be undiagnosed.
 
Piggybacking this thread upon reading a study out of Harvard, published in Nature Immunology today:

Long COVID involves activation of proinflammatory and immune exhaustion pathways


In the discussion section, the authors note:
Because the IL-6 and JAK-STAT pathways were among the top upregulated pathways in participants with Long COVID in both the 2020–2021 and the 2023–2024 cohorts, we have initiated a clinical trial to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of the JAK1 inhibitor abrocitinib for LC (NCT06597396).

They also conclude:
Current therapeutic efforts are largely focused on antiviral agents to address potential residual viral replication. However, the lack of efficacy of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in treating LC highlights the need to explore alternative therapeutic strategies. Our data suggests that the JAK-STAT and IL-6 pathways, and the IFN and metabolic pathways, are potential therapeutic targets that could be evaluated for LC.

The study:
Abstract:

Long COVID (LC) involves a spectrum of chronic symptoms after acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Current hypotheses for the pathogenesis of LC include persistent virus, tissue damage, autoimmunity, endocrine insufficiency, immune dysfunction and complement activation. We performed immunological, virological, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses from a cohort of 142 individuals between 2020 and 2021, including uninfected controls (n = 35), acutely infected individuals (n = 54), convalescent controls (n = 24) and patients with LC (n = 28). The LC group was characterized by persistent immune activation and proinflammatory responses for more than 180 days after initial infection compared with convalescent controls, including upregulation of JAK-STAT, interleukin-6, complement, metabolism and T cell exhaustion pathways. Similar findings were observed in a second cohort enrolled between 2023 and 2024, including convalescent controls (n = 20) and patients with LC (n = 18). These data suggest that LC is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways, suggesting new therapeutic targets and potential biomarkers of disease.

The trial:
Study to Investigate the Efficacy of Abrocitinib in Adult Participants With Severe Fatigue From Post COVID Condition/Long COVID (CLEAR-LC)

Brief Summary

The primary purpose of this phase 2a study is to compare the efficacy of abrocitinib to placebo in improving severe fatigue in non-hospitalized adults with symptomatic Post-COVID Condition (PCC) (also called Long COVID). We are also interested in learning if abrocitinib is effective in improving overall health status in people suffering from severe fatigue from PCC. Eligible participants with a confirmed history of COVID19 infection who also have PCC according to the World Health Organization definition, will be randomized to receive abrocitinib at a dose of 50 mg, 100 mg, or placebo by mouth daily for 12 weeks (84 days).

Detailed Description

Eligible volunteers will participate in six in-person visits at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center over 5 months. These visits include review of medical and medication history, answering questionnaires, blood, urine, and nasal swab specimen collection, physical exams, and contraceptive and medication counseling.

Official Title

A Phase 2a Randomized, Dose Ranging, Double-Blind, 3-Arm Study to Investigate Orally Administered Abrocitinib Compared With Placebo in Non-Hospitalized Symptomatic Adult Participants With Severe Fatigue From Post COVID Condition
 
Piggybacking this thread upon reading a study out of Harvard, published in Nature Immunology today:

Long COVID involves activation of proinflammatory and immune exhaustion pathways


In the discussion section, the authors note:


They also conclude:


The study:


The trial:
Thread for the study here:
Long COVID involves activation of proinflammatory and immune exhaustion pathways

Aid, Malika; Boero-Teyssier, Valentin; McMahan, Katherine; Dong, Rammy; Doyle, Michael; Belabbaci, Nazim; Borducchi, Erica; Collier, Ai-ris Y.; Mullington, Janet; Barouch, Dan H.

Abstract​

Long COVID (LC) involves a spectrum of chronic symptoms after acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection.
Current hypotheses for the pathogenesis of LC include persistent virus, tissue damage, autoimmunity, endocrine insufficiency, immune dysfunction and complement activation.

We performed immunological, virological, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses from a cohort of 142 individuals between 2020 and 2021, including uninfected controls (n = 35), acutely infected individuals (n = 54), convalescent controls (n = 24) and patients with LC (n = 28).
The LC group was characterized by persistent immune activation and proinflammatory responses for more than 180 days after initial infection compared with convalescent controls, including upregulation of JAK-STAT, interleukin-6, complement, metabolism and T cell exhaustion pathways.
Similar findings were observed in a second cohort enrolled between 2023 and 2024, including convalescent controls (n = 20) and patients with LC (n = 18).

These data suggest that LC is characterized by persistent activation of chronic inflammatory pathways, suggesting new therapeutic targets and potential biomarkers of disease.

Web | DOI | PDF | Nature Immunology
 
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