Case Report: Therapeutic and immunomodulatory effects of plasmapheresis in long-haul COVID

Uncertainties about the roles of anticoagulation and microclots in postacute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection

Three years after the start of the pandemic, approaches to the prevention and treatment of acute COVID-19 have been established. However, postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) is now the focus of current investigations searching for the etiology of the symptoms and developing diagnostic and treatment strategies, as up to 10% of those with acute COVID-19 will go on to develop PASC, a significant public health burden. Some have suggested that ongoing microvascular thrombosis and microclots may play a role in the persistent sequelae of COVID-19 infection. Treatments are being given to address the presumed role of thrombosis in PASC, and some suggest that randomized controlled trials of anticoagulants in patients with PASC should be performed. In this Forum article, we focus on findings from patients with PASC that have led to the suggestion of using anticoagulants and discuss alternative considerations.

Old plasma dilution reduces human biological age: a clinical study

This work extrapolates to humans the previous animal studies on blood heterochronicity and establishes a novel direct measurement of biological age. Our results support the hypothesis that, similar to mice, human aging is driven by age-imposed systemic molecular excess, the attenuation of which reverses biological age, defined in our work as a deregulation (noise) of 10 novel protein biomarkers. The results on biological age are strongly supported by the data, which demonstrates that rounds of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) promote a global shift to a younger systemic proteome, including youthfully restored pro-regenerative, anticancer, and apoptotic regulators and a youthful profile of myeloid/lymphoid markers in circulating cells, which have reduced cellular senescence and lower DNA damage. Mechanistically, the circulatory regulators of the JAK-STAT, MAPK, TGF-beta, NF-κB, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways become more youthfully balanced through normalization of TLR4, which we define as a nodal point of this molecular rejuvenation. The significance of our findings is confirmed through big-data gene expression studies.