Long Covid and immune dysfunction: is there a link

04 September 2025

Health and medicine, Liggins Institute

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, immunologist Dr Anna Brooks has been leading philanthropically funded research at the University of Auckland to understand how infections can cause the immune system to become dysregulated. Her current work includes Long Covid, a condition that develops 12 or more weeks following a Covid-19 infection and is characterised by a range of health symptoms including fatigue, brain fog and heart palpitations.

Specifically, she is investigating immune dysfunction across a range of complex conditions, including Long Covid and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), with a focus on understanding the mechanisms that drive immune dysregulation. Since moving to the Liggins Institute in July 2024, she has aimed to expand the scope of this work to explore how immune programming and environmental exposures across the life course may shape susceptibility to immune-mediated inflammatory conditions. The goal is to inform the development of diagnostic tools, treatment strategies and ultimately, preventative measures.

"The escalation of Long Covid highlighted that conditions like ME/CFS have always been around and completely underdiagnosed and medically dismissed," says Anna. "The key part of our research is understanding why these conditions happen in some individuals - the more we understand the 'why' factor, the better chances we have for good therapeutics moving forward."

She has partnered with Business School alumnus Rohan Botica in a research programme that combines deep immune analysis, including cutting-edge flow cytometric techniques and the development of unique assays, with dedicated patient outreach and clinical insights. Rohan came upon Anna's work after being diagnosed with ME/CFS following a viral infection prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I sent in my forms to participate and have my blood drawn, then I followed up to see how things were going," he recalls. "She explained the challenges with funding and I asked, 'How can I help?'"

In 2022 they founded DysImmune Research Aotearoa together, a public website providing information and updates about their research and offering a space for those suffering from debilitating post-viral conditions to connect and get involved.

Crucially, this gives a voice to patients who have faced the rollercoaster of getting a diagnosis - a frustrating process of exclusion, due to there being no biomarker for Long Covid or ME/CFS. Patients have to hope their doctor will take their symptoms seriously enough to order appropriate tests and rule out other health issues.

Even if a diagnosis is reached, there is no concrete resolution.

"You have the relief of getting a diagnosis, but it's no relief at all," says Rohan. "There's no cure and no specific treatments to prescribe. You've just got to try and manage the individual symptoms that are giving you the most problems."

Through DysImmune Research Aotearoa, he is helping others in the same position play a role in their recovery - including Māori and Pacific people, who were disproportionately affected by Covid-19 but remain underdiagnosed with Long Covid.

"I had nowhere to turn. Now, after teaming up with Anna, I have an opportunity to take some agency back over my health, be part of the solution and pass a microphone to others who are completely neglected and voiceless in the community," he says.

The Long Covid movement was critical in highlighting the value of patient-centred research, which is a core principle of the team's approach and provides deeper insight into the lived experience of those directly impacted, says Anna.

"Talking to patients themselves helps us frame and hypothesise. That's all part of the research journey, the engagement and discussions with our patient community."

The research has been funded by various donors, including Bea Blakely, Dr David Davies-Payne, T Tech Ltd, Stephen Harris, The Roy & Val Allan No.2 Charitable Trust and The Joan Mary Reynolds Charitable Trust. It wouldn't have been possible without this support, Anna says.

"We would not be here today if we were not launched with philanthropy. We would not have been able to hold onto that hope and keep moving. Every little bit helps, no matter how small it is."

She and Rohan hope to grow support further so they can expand their team and begin operating in a full-time capacity. This will enable them to put more hours into participant recruitment, sample processing, data generation and analyses, data management and patient outreach - ultimately accelerating progress.

"At the moment resourcing is still incredibly limited," Anna says. "Expanding to a full-time research programme would allow us to advance discoveries and fully leverage the interdisciplinary nature of this work. There is huge potential and bringing together teams with different expertise across the spectrum of these conditions is essential. We're increasingly optimistic that, given sufficient resourcing, meaningful breakthroughs are within reach."

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