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A study team from the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) has been reflecting on its world leading research into Long Covid ahead of International Long Covid Awareness Day tomorrow (Saturday, 15 March).

The PHOSP-COVID study was set up at pace and scale in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in July 2020. The National Institute for Health Research () and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded this long-term research study which is led by Professor Chris Brightling from the Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

Professor Brightling said: “It was vitally important that we rapidly gathered evidence on the longer term consequences of contracting severe COVID-19 so that we could develop and test new treatment strategies for them and other people affected by future waves of the disease."

PHOSP-COVID is a UK consortium of multidisciplinary researchers and clinicians working together to understand and improve long-term health outcomes for adults who were hospitalised with COVID-19.

Patients, clinicians and scientists worked together in 2020 to agree priority research questions for underlying mechanisms, diagnostic tools and interventions. Some 7935 adults who were discharged from hospital after COVID-19 between February 2020 and March 2021 were recruited into three tiers of research, which included medical notes review (Tier 1), clinical follow-up assessments and biological sampling at around 5 months and 12 months after discharge (Tier 2) and detailed immune profiling and multi-organ imaging (Tier 3). 

Throughout the study, there has been close engagement between the consortium, patients and the wider public. The team are proud of the patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) that has been central to the study from the offset.

PPIE is led by Dr Linzy Houchen-Wolloff - working with patient partners, the team has produced two public webinars, a series of newsletters and the PHOSP Scientific Summit, which included patient experience videos as a core focus of the day.

Dr Houchen-Wolloff reflected that: “I personally value the important difference our PPIE group continue to make to the PHOSP COVID study and more widely to promote Long Covid research, advocacy and policy.  To do all of this on top of having a long-term health condition is humbling.”

Five years on the consortium team is celebrating around 50 peer-reviewed . Key outputs from the group include studies of the long-term impact of COVID-19 on mental and physical health, health care pathways and studies investigating biological mechanisms responsible for long COVID, including the role of the immune system, hormones and organ damage. 

Although recruitment across the four UK nations (64 centres) is now complete, analyses are ongoing and the samples remain a fruitful resource for future work. A further 20 publications are in the pipeline.

Professor Louise Wain, Co-Principal Investigator of the study biological samples lead said: “This study was only possible thanks to the participants who took part and provided valuable biological samples that enable us to uncover the molecular changes in the blood and look at how they might relate to recovery from COVID-19.”

New interventional trials to understand the role of various therapies for Long Covid have also started. The PHOSP-Rehabilitation (PHOSP-R) study led by Dr Enya Daynes has just been published in the l. The trial in 181 patients found that exercise-based rehabilitation improved short-term exercise capacity in those with Long Covid following an acute hospitalisation and showed potential for beneficial immune effects.

The PHOSP-Inflammation (PHOSP-I) trial is currently recruiting patients with Long Covid and persistent inflammation in 15 UK centres. This trial aims to investigate whether a medication called Tocilizumab will improve symptoms and help improve health-related quality of life in people living with Long Covid.

Professor Rachael Evans, Co-Principal Investigator of the PHOSP-COVID study and PHOSP-I lead explains: “We have previously shown a link between the severity of ongoing health impairments and inflammation. We believe that Tocilizumab, which is already used to treat patients with acute COVID-19, may be effective in treating patients with Long Covid by reducing inflammation.” 

Long Covid remains a significant challenge for the millions of people who have persistent symptoms, for health-care systems and for economies through loss of work. It is important that Long Covid remains a healthcare and research priority. The planned ongoing work of the PHOSP collaborative to develop new treatments and improved outcomes for people living with Long Covid, strives to do this.

For more information and support on Long Covid visit