Axcella Therapeutics has released the preliminary results from a small trial on AXA1125. They found that the amino acid blend increased physical stamina and reduced mental fatigue. They found that it did little to improve a specific biomarker that they thought would be remedied by the therapy… that’s unfortunate, but if people who got the amino acids did significantly better than those who got the placebo, it may not matter so much that the hypothesis behind the treatment is not rock solid.
“Axcella Announces Highly Promising Results from Phase 2a Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial for Long COVID.” 2 Aug 2022, Axcella Website.
I wrote about Axcella’s AXA1125 Amino Acid formula in May of 2022 in another post. I talked about which amino acids are in the blend, and how it appears to be a safe and inexpensive treatment (about $2 per day if you compound it yourself). And I am glad to see positive results … but have some reservations:
The news from Axcella is more like a press release than a scientific study - the link above talks about the main points, but doesn’t provide as much detail as I think it should. And the study was small - 21 people got the amino acid mix, 20 got a placebo. In the long run, that won’t matter if larger studies confirm their claims.
There was another study from Italy that looked at the effects of the amino acid L-arginine (which is also in AXA1125) in combination with vitamin C. That study had more participants and claimed to find more extensive improvements. You can read more here. If I had to choose between these two studies today, I would probably go with the Italian study - its a simpler, less expensive protocol that seems to work as well or better (though it is hard to compare the studies directly, as they measured different responses using different scales). But two small studies don’t provide a rock-solid foundation for scientific knowledge. They may indeed be on to something, and the costs and risks of taking a daily amino acid supplement are relatively small. If you have tried either approach, leave a comment describing your experience.
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