Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40744021›Full record

ReviewCell reports. Medicine2025

Causes of symptoms and symptom persistence in long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

Anthony L Komaroff, Robert Dantzer

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Cell reports. Medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
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  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
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  11. Growing recognition of post-acute infection syndromes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  12. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Anthony L KomaroffDepartment of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: komaroff@hms.harvard.edu.
Robert DantzerDepartment of Internal Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.

Funding

Tumor Evolution and Metastasis ProgramP30CA016672 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · PI DIANE BODURKA · 1985 to 2026
$290.8M
Project 3 : Clinical correlates and diagnostics in ME/CFSU54AI138370 · NIAID · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI LIPKIN, W. IAN · 2017 to 2022
$10.7M
Neuroimmune Mechanisms of Recovery from Comorbid Depression and Chronic PainR01NS073939 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · PI DANTZER, ROBERT, HEIJNEN, COBI J · 2011 to 2020
$4.0M
The Metabolic Basis of Cancer-Related FatigueR01CA193522 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · PI DANTZER, ROBERT · 2015 to 2023
$3.8M
Mitokines as new targets for fatigue induced by mitochondrial stressR21NS130712 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · PI DANTZER, ROBERT · 2022 to 2022
$446k
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA016672NCI NIH HHS R01 CA193522NIAID NIH HHS U54 AI138370NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS073939NINDS NIH HHS R21 NS130712
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Debilitating symptoms for many years can follow acute COVID-19 ("long COVID"), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and various post-acute infection syndromes (PAISs). Together, long COVID and ME/CFS affect 60-400 million individuals, globally. Many similar underlying biological abnormalities have been identified in both conditions including autoantibodies against neural targets, endothelial dysfunction, acquired mitochondrial dysfunction, and a pro-inflammatory gut microbiome. Each of these abnormalities may directly cause some of the symptoms. In addition, the symptoms also may be caused by ancient, evolutionarily conserved symptomatic and metabolic responses to vital threats-sickness behavior and torpor-responses mediated by specific, recently discovered neural circuits. These neural circuits constitute a symptom-generating pathway, activated by neuroinflammation, which may be targeted by therapeutics to quell neuroinflammation. Many factors cause the symptoms to become chronic, including persistent infectious agents (and/or their nucleic acids and antigens) and the fact that many of the underlying biological abnormalities reinforce each other, creating ongoing physiological vicious cycles.

Indexed as

COVID-19Fatigue Syndrome, ChronicGastrointestinal MicrobiomeHumansPost-Acute COVID-19 SyndromeSARS-CoV-2long COVIDmyalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndromeneural circuitsneuroimmunologypost-COVID conditionsickness behavior

Identifiers

PMID40744021
PMCPMC12432373

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.