University of Iowa researcher lands American Lung Association grant to study long-COVID

IOWA CITY — A University of Iowa Health Care researcher is among 21 nationally to receive an American Lung Association award worth hundreds of thousands for “COVID-19 and respiratory virus research” – his looking specifically at “long-haul” COVID.

Sean Fain, a radiology professor in the UI Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Imaging, received the Lung Association’s award – which includes up to $100,000 annually for up to two years – for his project titled, “Understanding ‘Long Haul’ COVID-19.”

The research – among at least 10 ongoing UI-based COVID-related clinical studies and trials – aims to investigate blood vessel injury in COVID patients and methods for improving lung-inflammation treatments.

“Chronic lung disease is recognized as a debilitating outcome of COVID-19,” according to Fain’s project description. “Patients who suffer from chronic symptoms post-COVID-19 are sometimes referred to as ‘long haulers’ in which the chronic after-effects of infection impair quality of life.”

In severe cases, according to Fain’s project pitch, COVID triggers an immune response when it enters a body, causing inflammation and injury to blood vessels. Blood vessel injuries in the lungs can create scarring known as “interstitial lunge disease,” a condition that remains even after any COVID infection resolves.

Fain, through his Lung Association-funded research, will study injured blood vessels in COVID patients using “imaging and blood biomarkers that measure inflammation and repair.”

“The biomarkers indicate active blood vessel injury and will be used to monitor functional lung decline and improvement before and after treatment in patients with post-COVID-19 lung disease,” according to Fain’s proposal.

Fain, with his initial $100,000 award, joins a cohort of American researchers receiving a total $12.6 million via 100-plus lung-health grants – including those directly related to the pandemic.

In a statement, American Lung Association Executive Director Micki Sandquist reported COVID long-haulers are growing more prevalent.

“Many of us know someone, be it a family member, coworker or friend who is suffering from ‘long COVID’ symptoms,” Sandquist said in a statement. “As a society, we need research like Dr. Fain’s to help all the ‘long-haulers’ in our lives heal from the damaging effects of this lung disease.”

Researchers and projects granted Lung Association funding are “carefully selected through a rigorous review committee and represent the investigation of a wide range of complex issues to help reduce the burden of lung disease.”

The goal of the COVID research is to curtail ongoing burdens from the virus through exploration of new treatment approaches and better understanding of complex immune responses.

“These areas of focus — the immune system’s response, how the virus causes pathology and applying public health to help identify risk factors, and how we can reduce community spread — are important lynchpins in our ability to reduce the burden of COVID-19 in the U.S.,” according to the American Lung Association.

Other researchers conducting similar Lung Association grant-funded work reign from Central Washington University, Yale University, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Per the rules, grants are subject to annual review and second-year funding is contingent on “demonstration of satisfactory progress, as well as the availability of funding from the Lung Association.”

No more than a quarter of a project’s requested budget can go toward salary or fringe benefits and no more than 30 percent of the total award can go to buy equipment.

UI Health Care in 2020 established a Post-COVID Clinic, and its researchers earlier this year produced findings from a study showing physical changes to the small airways in lungs might explain breathing problems characterized as “long haul” COVID.

The symptoms, according to that research, could appear in patients with both severe and less-severe sickness.

Researchers came to their conclusions by analyzing CT scans of 100 patients at the Iowa City-based UI Post-COVID clinic.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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