Auteur : S. Margalit
While the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip has loosened, millions worldwide grapple with long-term effects. A recent JAMA Network report estimates 7% of US adults, or nearly 18 million, experience Long COVID. Scientists pinpoint microscopic blood clots as a potential culprit. I spoke with Markus Klotz, co-founder of the Apheresis Center in Larnaca, Cyprus, and a former Long COVID patient himself, to delve deeper into the condition and their promising treatment protocol.
Markus, many Long COVID patients struggle despite seeming recovery. What’s the cause?
"En termes simples : Comme la plupart des gens le savent déjà, le virus COVID-19 a une forme ronde couverte de pointes ; on peut imaginer le virus comme un porc-épic. Dans certains cas, même si le patient est guéri de l'infection virale, une quantité importante de pointes détachées du corps du virus reste dans la circulation sanguine et le système du patient.
Ces pointes s'accrochent et s'emmêlent dans une protéine appelée fibrinogène. Son nom indique que le fibrinogène a la forme d'une fibre. Le fibrinogène lie les plaquettes sanguines en cas de blessure en créant un réseau de fibres qui attache les plaquettes sanguines et les fixe dans une position stable à l'endroit où la blessure s'est produite.
Once a COVID-19 spike gets caught in a fibrinogen net, it weakens its strength and flexibility. The fibrinogen net gets broken and pieces of it start circulating the blood stream creating fibrin aggregates, so called microclots that researchers have found to cause quite a substantial amount of symptoms. Especially as they include amyloid proteins which makes them extremely hard to dissolve. Of course in many cases there are other processes involved – often downstream of the microclots/hypercoagulation – hyperinflammation, autoimmune processes and neurological issues.”
Comment puis-je savoir si je suis porteur de microclots dans mon sang ?
“I recommend you first consult your doctor. There is a few research laboratories that test for microclots and endothelial damage. You can also take the online diagnostic screening questionnaire test available on our website, developed by our medical advisor Dr. Gustavo Aguirre-Chang. By now though we have more accurate molecular diagnostic tests – spike protein persistence tests that show where spike remains in the patients’ system – in the serum, the exosomes or the immune cells.”
Quels sont les symptômes ressentis par les patients ?
“The National Healthcare Service in the UK (NHS UK) has published a few symptoms like extreme tiredness (fatigue), shortness of breath, problems with your memory and concentration (“brain fog”), heart palpitations, dizziness and joint pain and muscle aches. For so many patients we meet here in our clinic, the symptoms are so severe that they are bedridden close to 23 hours a day, but there is also many that have more mild versions but are still struggling a lot to live a normal life.”
When Markus fell ill at the end of 2020 after contracting Covid and his life was taken away from him through a severe case of Long Covid, he, his family and friends already had lost hope of a recovery when a therapy in Mülheim, Germany brought him back to life again. Dr. Beate Jaeger treated him with H.E.L.P. Apheresis for Long Covid. He was patient Nr. 14 in her published case study.
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“I was bedridden, constantly fatigued, with terrible muscle aches. The slightest exertion left me breathless, and my mind felt perpetually foggy. I couldn’t even watch TV or read the news. Depression and anxiety weighed heavily. No doctor could diagnose or offer any treatment. Joining Dr. Jaeger’s H.E.L.P. Apheresis study became my lifeline “
After his recovery, Markus took upon himself a mission to make the treatment available for more patients and together with his best friends Constantinos Georgiou and Silke Fischer with the support of Dr. Beate Jaeger opened the Apheresis Center in Larnaca with Dr. Irina Pavlik Marangos, who leads the medical team as the Medical Director. Utilizing their clinical experience and cooperating with doctors and researchers from all over the world, they developed ‘The Cyprus Protocol’, a combination therapy to treat Long COVID and other chronic conditions”
Markus, qu'est-ce qui rend la thérapie combinée avec l'aphérèse H.E.L.P. si efficace dans le traitement des patients atteints de COVID de longue durée ?
"Les procédures d'aphérèse régulières sont couramment utilisées dans le monde entier pour séparer les différents composants sanguins. Par exemple, lors d'un don de plaquettes sanguines, le donneur est relié à une machine d'aphérèse qui filtre les plaquettes sanguines tout en laissant le reste des composants sanguins retourner dans la circulation sanguine. L'appareil fonctionne comme une passoire : plus les trous sont petits, plus il peut filtrer de composants. Malheureusement, les protéines virales comme COVID-19 has et microclots sont minuscules et passent à travers les filtres des machines d'aphérèse.
However, H.E.L.P. Apheresis works differently. Instead of using mechanical components to filter the blood, H.E.L.P. Apheresis cleans the blood using several chemical solutions and processes, literally making the machine a “live laboratory”. First it separates the plasma from the rest of the blood. Then injecting an acetate buffer it turns the plasma’s acidity level to 5,2 pH, creating an environment in which spike proteins, pathogenic proteins and microclots and other toxins and pathogens irreversibly bind to the now injected heparan sulfate, a form of heparin. This process is called precipitation – the solidified ‘precipitate’ remains in a filter-like structure (precipitation filter) with a surface size of over two football fields. The clean plasma is then going through a counter-dialysis with bicarbonate to normalise the pH value again and after that through ultrafiltration/a heparin adsorber and is finally warmed up to body temperature and returned to the bloodstream together the rest of the blood components.
Most forms of Apheresis procedures are very different and therefore less efficient – a selective absorber or precipitation seems to be key.”
Et l'aphérèse H.E.L.P. est-elle vraiment utile ?
"Nous observons un taux de réussite de 80 % ici même à la clinique. Même chez les patients qui, pour une raison ou une autre, ne peuvent pas suivre tous les cycles d'aphérèse recommandés sur le site H.E.L.P. , nous observons une amélioration significative. De nombreux patients font état de progrès importants dans leur rétablissement une fois rentrés chez eux. Tout dépend de la gravité de la maladie".
Je dois dire que Markus parle avec passion de Long COVID et de H.E.L.P. Apheresis, mais lorsque je lui ai posé la question suivante, il s'est mis à rayonner.
Mais H.E.L.P. L'aphérèse n'est pas le seul traitement que vous administrez aux patients dans votre clinique ?
“H.E.L.P. is the crown jewel of the treatment as it is the core part of ‘The Cyprus Protocol’ we use in the clinic. It’s a combination of several different therapies designed to clean the blood from microclots, support the recovery process and provide the patient with means to prevent the next infection.
It includes clinical nutrition supervision, IV therapy, antiviral medications, IVIG IgM enhanced therapy, hyperthermia, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, immunoadsorption therapy and post treatment support by a health coach. Each treatment plan is tailored by Dr. Irina Pavlik Marangos and our clinical nutritionist and clinical director Chryso Zorbas. While not every patient will be undergoing all the treatments, specific combinations of some of them are ‘doing wonders’ for Long COVID and Post Vac, as well as for chronic illness patients”
Je comprends que vous obteniez des résultats remarquables, mais pourquoi le traitement n'a-t-il pas encore été approuvé par une agence de santé dans le monde entier ?
"Les études cliniques de Long Covid ne font que commencer. Si vous regardez par exemple de près le site web du NHS UK, vous verrez qu'il ne s'agit que d'une aide à la gestion des symptômes, pas vraiment d'un traitement ou d'une guérison. Nous prévoyons que les essais cliniques et les procédures d'approbation dureront au moins jusqu'en 2030. Que doivent faire les patients atteints de Long COVID jusqu'en 2030 ? Rester au lit et attendre ?"
“Every treatment we offer our patients is clinically approved by health agencies around the world and considered as safe, they are just not labelled as ‘Long Covid or Post Vac treatments’ yet.”
Vous voulez rendre les traitements plus accessibles, pourquoi Chypre alors ?
“Well, the answer lies in your question. The operating costs for a clinic like ours are higher in the rest of the European Union or in the USA for example, thus letting us provide the treatments at a better cost. 70 direct flights and English language are just two more of the long list of reasons we chose Cyprus. The island itself has a high standard private health infrastructure. I have to say that the beautiful view of the Mediterranean and the sunny blue sky also help our patients recovery. I like what Stephen, one of our patients said: ‘We managed to blend German efficiency and Cypriot hospitality at our clinic.”
Enfin, Markus, y a-t-il quelque chose que vous aimeriez dire à d'autres patients atteints d'une maladie chronique, d'une maladie de longue durée ou d'une maladie post-vaccinale ?
Markus s'arrête quelques secondes pour réfléchir et répond avec une expression émotionnelle
“For me the worst part was the mental part, not knowing what you really have is devastating, but my message as a former patient to other patients is don’t lose hope! Speak to your doctor, ask for available treatments and don’t lose hope. We also provide free consultation to patients from all over the world and you are welcome to do that too.”
