# Administrative Supplement to Investigate the Effects of Long COVID on SELA study participants

> **NIH NIH R01** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2024 · $210,509

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The NIMHD funded parent project, R01 MD015395, “Social Factors, Epigenomics, and Lupus in African
American women (SELA)” seeks to identify the epigenetic mechanisms by which positive and negative social
experiences, such as social support and racial discrimination, affect gene function and thereby influence
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; lupus) in African American (AA) women. SLE is a prototypic autoimmune
disease marked by a disproportionate prevalence and severity burden in AA women. AAs experience a
disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and adverse outcomes including death. Less is
known about long-term outcomes of COVID-19 and long COVID symptoms in SLE, although it is thought that
COVID-19 infection may further complicate disparities. Moreover, social determinants of health (SDOH)
influence SLE outcomes. Our long-term goal is to understand how the intersection of multiple biological,
behavioral, and sociocultural exposures contribute to lupus outcomes in AA women with SLE. Our specific
objective is to understand the long-term clinical impact of COVID-19 infection in this health disparity population.
In direct response to NOT-OD-24-032, the goal of this Administrative Supplement is to capitalize on the parent
grant’s research infrastructure to expand it to include additional individual and community exposures and
investigate the impact of COVID-19-related morbidity and long COVID symptoms on SLE disease activity in AA
women. We will invite 140 participants with SLE and 140 controls from the parent study to have data collected
on COVID-19 past infection and vaccination, long COVID symptoms, and census-tract and individual-level
SDOH. Samples will be collected and assayed for levels of COVID-19 antigens and antibodies against major
SARS-CoV-2 variants. We hypothesize that SLE worsens long COVID symptoms and COVID-19 increases SLE
disease activity. We propose to: (Aim 1) investigate the effects of SLE on long COVID symptoms in AA women,
and (Aim 2) assess the impact of past COVID-19 infection on SLE disease activity in AA women. Little is known
about risk factors and predictors of long COVID in AA women with SLE. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has
complicated treatment of SLE as it is unclear if symptoms are due to SLE, past COVID-19 infection or long
COVID. We anticipate that this project will yield critical COVID-19-related and multidimensional SDOH data for
multidisciplinary applications focused on analyzing the synergistic effects of multiple exposures on SLE
outcomes in AA women. Findings will fill important knowledge gaps related to COVID-19 in AA women with and
without SLE and could help identify high-risk groups, inform prevention efforts, and guide clinical care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11020706
- **Project number:** 3R01MD015395-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Paula Sofia Ramos
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $210,509
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-07-28 → 2024-09-24

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11020706

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11020706, Administrative Supplement to Investigate the Effects of Long COVID on SELA study participants (3R01MD015395-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11020706. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*