The initiative, coordinated by the University of Verona, provides concrete results in the fight against Long Covid
The Orchestra Project, Connecting European Cohorts to Increase Common and Effective Response to Sars-Cov-2 Pandemic, has come to an end. This European research initiative, coordinated by the Infectious Diseases division of the University of Verona, brought together scientists from 37 different partner institutions from 14 countries to provide much needed data to support the management and control of the Covid-19 pandemic. The final meeting was hosted in Verona on the 7th and 8th of October at Palazzo Giusti in Verona.
Launched in 2020, the Orchestra project was funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme with a grant of 30 million euros and has achieved concrete results in the fight against “Long Covid”, the term that has been given to the condition to refer to the long-term consequences produced after having contracted the virus.
A comprehensive analysis involving over 7,000 patients with mild to severe cases of Covid-19 from 50 European centres allowed Orchestra to map, with precision, the link between virus variants and specific clinical conditions. Scientists identified four distinct clinical subtypes of Long Covid and were able to define the characteristics of patients at risk. The project also demonstrated the effectiveness of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies in reducing the risk of Long Covid by over 80% while monitoring the risk of resistance to these therapies, particularly in fragile patients with haematological neoplastic diseases.
The strong collaboration also led to the creation of The Orchestra Data Portal, a data portal open to the international scientific community that brings together all the results and knowledge built from the contribution of all the centres involved in the project.
“Orchestra does not limit itself to providing answers to the challenges of Covid,” underlines Evelina Tacconelli, Director of the Infectious Disease Division of the University of Verona and coordinator of the project, “but looks to the future, helping us to prepare for the pandemics of tomorrow. The Orchestra Data portal represents a precious legacy for the global scientific community, a treasure trove of information that will contribute to the fight against infectious with pandemic potential”.
“Orchestra is a truly multidisciplinary project that brings together clinical and laboratory experts from different domains to enable data synthesis and meaningful results that allow an early translation to patient care”, says Surbhi Malhotra, Director of the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, University of Antwerp, Belgium and lead of the laboratory analysis work package in Orchestra. “The rich datasets and (linked) biobanked patient samples will continue to be utilized maximally both by Orchestra partners and others in our endeavour to be better prepared for the next pandemic.”
Samir Kumar-Singh, professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Antwerp and immunology lead for serology, seroneutralization, cellular immunity, and cytokinomics, whose team has biobanked over 45,000 patient samples from Orchestra, echoes these views. "Although there is much more to discover on mechanisms of Long Covid, our extensive analysis of samples alongside clinical data has already provided valuable insights, particularly for improving care for immunocompromised patients."
Over 100 scientific publications and numerous educational videos are testament to the impact of the project among both the scientific community and the public alike. Orchestra has thus succeeded in demonstrating how scientific research can keep the public well-informed and provide a concrete and timely contribution during a health emergency, supporting doctors in their daily work and offering solutions for the future.
For more information about the European Orchestra project and its work, please visit the project website.
Press Agency Univerona News
Roberta Dini, Elisa Innocenti, Sara Mauroner
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ufficio.stampa@ateneo.univr.it