New alternative to Paxlovid seems to prevent Long Covid in mice

"A novel PLpro inhibitor improves outcomes in a pre-clinical model of long COVID"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57905-4
(published April 3)

Reading the above study made my eyes AND brain hurt, as a layperson, but the gist of it seems to be that while Paxlovid targets the essential CoV main protease (Mpro), an enzyme required to cleave viral polypeptides into functional proteins, these researchers have found a compound, WEHI-P8, that instead target PLpro, a further essential coronaviral protease.
This was conducted on mice, and they found that in addition to improved recovery from the acute phase compared to Paxlovid, it offered significant resistance to Long Covid, which the paper stated Paxlovid fails to do.
They dissected lungs to see this improved response, plus somehow measured brain functionality, if I understood correctly.
Of course, this doesn't NECESSARILY translate to better outcomes in humans, but is promising as a possible PREVENTATIVE (not a cure) for LC.
In any case, we should all be thankful to the poor, little "meeses" for their service in sacrificing their lives for Humanity, .