Mitochondrial Function in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells, Muscle, and Skin of Long COVID Patients (MitoLoCo)

Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Long COVID; Post-COVID-19 Condition

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07134673

EC-2025-071

G075423N (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Mitochondria are structures inside cells that are responsible for producing energy from nutrients through a series of steps, using oxygen. To have an idea of how well the mitochondria can produce energy, we can measure how much oxygen they use. The goal of this study is to:

1. To compare the oxygen use between people with long COVID and people who completely recovered after COVID-19, using three techniques that measure the oxygen use in blood cells, on the skin and in the muscle
2. To test how similar these three techniques are in measuring the oxygen used in the three different tissues

Participants will:

• Complete surveys,
• Wear an activity tracker (7 days),
• Undergo several non-invasive tests, and
• Donate a blood sample The study will take place in UZ Brussel hospital and will take 2 study visits, approximately 7 days apart.

Enrollment: 54 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Individuals with long COVID:

Inclusion criteria:

• Long COVID diagnosis, based on the WHO definition;
• Presence of long COVID symptoms for a minimum of 6 months.
• History of confirmed or documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.
• Adult (≥18 years of age).
• Post-COVID-19 Functional Status Scale grade 2-4, while they had a grade 0 before the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Exclusion criteria:

• Pre-existing chronic diseases potentially affecting the functional status scale.
• Treatment with metabolism altering drugs.
• > 10 standard units of alcohol (10 grams of alcohol/glass) per week.
• Unable to understand oral and written instructions in Dutch, French or English.
• Allergies to medical adhesive bandages.
• Porphyria and other skin conditions aggravated by sunlight.

Convalescent individuals

Inclusion criteria:

• History of confirmed or documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.
• Complete recovery after the SARS-CoV-2 infection, no history of long COVID based on the WHO definition;
• Post-COVID-19 Functional Status Scale [2] grade 0 both before the infection and currently.
• Adult (≥18 years of age).

Exclusion criteria:

• Pre-existing chronic non-communicable diseases (e.g. hypertension, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes).
• Treatment with metabolism altering drugs.
• > 10 standard units of alcohol (10 grams of alcohol/glass) per week.
• Unable to understand oral and written instructions in Dutch, French or English.
• Allergies to medical adhesive bandages.
• Porphyria and other skin conditions aggravated by sunlight.

Trial design

54 participants in 2 patient groups

Individuals with long COVID

Description:

History of a confirmed or documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and long COVID according to the World Health Organisation's clinical case definition

Convalescent individuals

Description:

History of a confirmed or documented SARS-CoV-2 infection, complete recovery after the SARS-CoV-2 infection, no history of long COVID according to the World Health Organisation's clinical case definition