A drug usually used to help people recover from opioid addiction might also offer new hope for those suffering from long COVID.
Researchers from Griffith University have discovered that low-dose naltrexone (LDN) could help fix a key problem in the cells of people with long COVID, potentially improving their symptoms and quality of life.
Long COVID is a condition where symptoms from a COVID-19 infection linger for weeks or even months after the initial illness.
It affects more than 77 million people around the world and can cause ongoing fatigue, brain fog, pain, and other health issues.
Because of how many people are affected, scientists are urgently looking for treatments that are safe and effective.
Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik from Griffith’s National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) says the new study brings hope.
Her team found that low-dose naltrexone helps restore normal function in human cells, which may explain how it could improve long COVID symptoms.
While naltrexone is typically used to treat addiction, at lower doses it appears to work differently—helping cells recover and communicate better.
The key issue the researchers focused on involves ion channels, which are like doors on the surface of our cells.
These channels let calcium enter the cells, which is important for how cells work, including how they signal to each other and support the immune system.
In people with long COVID, these “doors” don’t work properly, making it harder for cells to function normally.
PhD candidate Etianne Sasso, the study’s first author, explained that the faulty ion channels are like doors that are stuck shut or don’t open and close properly. This makes it difficult for the cells to get the calcium they need.
But after treatment with low-dose naltrexone, the channels started working again, allowing calcium to flow in and support healthy cell activity.
These findings suggest that long COVID symptoms may be partly due to problems in how cells send signals and manage the immune system. Fixing these ion channels could be a major step toward recovery.
To explore this further, the NCNED team is running a clinical trial to see if LDN can reduce symptoms and improve daily life for people with long COVID.
They are currently looking for volunteers to take part in the study.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about vitamin D deficiency linked to severe COVID-19, death, and how diets could help manage post-COVID syndrome.
For more health information, please see recent studies about COVID infection and vaccination linked to heart disease, and results showing extracts from two wild plants can inhibit COVID-19 virus.
Source: Griffith University.
