Episode 40: Dr Bettina Hohberger – look into my eyes… and BC007

Dr Bettina Hohberger, an ophthalmologist at Erlangen University with expertise in glaucoma, believes that looking at the eye – an area of the body where the blood vessels are visible – is representative of the rest of the human body. She has seen that there is a change in blood vessel density of the eye in her patients with Long Covid.

Hohberger and her team have been studying autoantibodies against G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) in glaucoma for several years, and found these autoantibodies to be present in the blood of Long Covid patients.  This protein, which is visible using a technique called optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), has a detrimental effect on the eye. If it has a detrimental effect on the eye, it seems likely that this damage might be taking place across the whole body.

Having worked with members of the Berlin Cures team for several years, Hohberger decided to trial their drug BC007 to treat one of her glaucoma patients with Long Covid.  Originally for the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy, BC007 was developed for the targeted neutralisation of autoantibodies. If the same autoantibodies are driving our Long Covid symptoms could it be that this medicine could alleviate our Long Covid symptoms?

Hohberger’s first “healing attempt” using ‘BC007’ was a success, the case report was published, and this was followed by three further successful uses of the drug.  The team are now awaiting delivery of more the drug to perform more extensive and rigorous clinical trials to see if BC007 has potential as a treatment for Long Covid.  Running parallel they also have  a large study to establish attempting to develop diagnostics to determine a patient’s subgroup of Long Covid. It aims to establish the patients that have Long Covid activated by autoimmunity and therefore determines which patients might be suitable to enrol on the BC007 trial.

For her diagnostic insights into Long Covid, Dr Hohberger received the Heidelberg Engineering Xtreme Research Award 2022.