SARS-CoV-2-specific monoclonal antibody AER002 in Long COVID: an exploratory randomized phase 2a mechanistic trial

Deeks, Steven G. · Nature

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the study participants, their caregivers, and their medical providers. We also acknowledge the following for their contributions: Monika Deswal and Elnaz Eilkhani for regulatory support; the UCSF LIINC, RECOVER, and clinical trials teams especially Viva Tai, Khamal Anglin, Grace Anderson, Melissa Buitrago, Emily Conway, Avery Eun, and Megan Lew for participant referrals and coordination; the UCSF Investigational Drug Service, especially Scott Fields, for preparing and dispensing study product; the UCSF Parnassus Clinical Research Service (CRS), especially Josephine Liu, Ryan Gunay, Patricia Cannon, Beryl Abungan, and Allison Ingebretson for administering the study drug and monitoring participants; the UCSF Specimen Processing & Banking Subcore including Salman Mahboob and Billy Huang for overseeing biospecimen processing; the Henrich lab, especially Lilian Grimbert and Belen Altamirano Poblano for assistance with the tissue-based assays; Danny Li and Marty Levkova-Clark for assistance in performing the cardiopulmonary exercise tests; Safety Monitoring Committee members Vincent Marconi, Jason Goldman, and Rasika Karnik; Molly Beam for guidance on CNS-Vital Signs neurocognitive testing; the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research for licensing the COMPASS-31 for use in the study; Lisa McCorkell and Hannah Davis from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative for advice in the design and implementation of the study; and Amy Proal for input on the manuscript.

Funding

The conduct of the clinical trial was financially supported by the Patient-Led Research Fund, a project of Patient-Led Research Collaborative funded by Balvi. The optional gut biopsy and imaging procedures were funded by the PolyBio Research Foundation. Additional biological measurements were supported by funding from the National Institute for Neurologic Disorders and Stroke (NINDS; R01NS136197) and the PolyBio Research Foundation. This project was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1 TR001872. Sequencing was performed at the UCSF CAT, supported by UCSF PBBR, RRP IMIA, and NIH 1S10OD028511-01 grants. The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Michael J. Peluso, Dylan Ryder.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Michael J. Peluso, Dylan Ryder, Thomas Dalhuisen, Meghann C. Williams, Antonio E. Rodriguez, Emily A. Fehrman, Beatrice Huang, Rebecca Hoh, Kofi A. Asare, Kathleen Bellon Pizarro & Steven G. Deeks

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Danny Hoi Tsun Chu, Mohammad Sofiqur Rahman & Amelia N. Deitchman

  3. Division of Experimental Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Brian H. LaFranchi, Joanna Vinden, Emilio de Narvaez, Yoshinori Fukazawa, Peter W. Hunt & Timothy J. Henrich

  4. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Mark M. Painter & E. John Wherry

  5. Department of Pathology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Zoe N. Swank, Louise L. Hansen & David R. Walt

  6. Patient-Led Research Collaborative, Washington, DC, USA

    Anisha Sekar & Steven E. Bellan

  7. Aerium Therapeutics, Boston, MA, USA

    Holly Tieu, Josephat Asiago, Prakash Bhuyan & Rajeev Venkayya

  8. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Robert R. Flavell & Henry VanBrocklin

  9. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    J. Daniel Kelly, Jeffrey N. Martin & David V. Glidden

  10. Division of Cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Priscilla Y. Hsue

  11. Division of Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Matthew S. Durstenfeld

  12. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Leonard Calabrese

  13. Division of Gastroenterology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Ma Somsouk

Authors

  1. Michael J. Peluso
  2. Dylan Ryder
  3. Thomas Dalhuisen
  4. Danny Hoi Tsun Chu
  5. Meghann C. Williams
  6. Antonio E. Rodriguez
  7. Brian H. LaFranchi
  8. Joanna Vinden
  9. Emily A. Fehrman
  10. Beatrice Huang
  11. Rebecca Hoh
  12. Kofi A. Asare
  13. Kathleen Bellon Pizarro
  14. Mohammad Sofiqur Rahman
  15. Emilio de Narvaez
  16. Mark M. Painter
  17. E. John Wherry
  18. Zoe N. Swank
  19. Louise L. Hansen
  20. David R. Walt
  21. Yoshinori Fukazawa
  22. Anisha Sekar
  23. Steven E. Bellan
  24. Holly Tieu
  25. Josephat Asiago
  26. Prakash Bhuyan
  27. Rajeev Venkayya
  28. Robert R. Flavell
  29. Henry VanBrocklin
  30. J. Daniel Kelly
  31. Priscilla Y. Hsue
  32. Matthew S. Durstenfeld
  33. Peter W. Hunt
  34. Leonard Calabrese
  35. Ma Somsouk
  36. Jeffrey N. Martin
  37. David V. Glidden
  38. Amelia N. Deitchman
  39. Timothy J. Henrich
  40. Steven G. Deeks

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael J. Peluso.

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Competing interests

M.J.P. has received consulting fees from Gilead Sciences, AstraZeneca, BioVie, Apellis Pharmaceuticals, BioNTech, and TechImmune, travel support from Invivyd, and research support from Shionogi, BioVie, and ImmunityBio, outside the submitted work. Y.F. reports a financial interest in Eugit Therapeutics, which is unrelated to the submitted work. M.S.D. has received consulting fees from Merck. D.G. has received consulting fees from Gilead, Merck, and Viiv. S.G.D. reports consulting for Enanta Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Peluso, M.J., Ryder, D., Dalhuisen, T. et al. SARS-CoV-2-specific monoclonal antibody AER002 in Long COVID: an exploratory randomized phase 2a mechanistic trial. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77925-y

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