Researchers from the Karolinska Institute have identified blood biomarkers associated with the symptoms of long respiratory disorders, in particular serious. Discovery can pave the way for future diagnosis and treatment. The results are published in the leading scientific journal Nature immunology.
Long Cavid, also known as Post-Cavid, is a condition characterized by persistent symptoms of the previous COVIR-19. A new study by the Karolinska Institute, Sweden and the University of Cardiff, in the United Kingdom, led by Marcus Bugsert, docent in the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Huddinde), identified a set of proteins in the blood of people with a long coide.
Proteins were mainly found in patients with long and serious respiratory problems. It is a biomarker diagram that we know how to be linked to the inflammatory signal pathways involved in cell death and pulmonary damage and which has also been observed in other groups of patients with serious pulmonary disorders. “”
Dr Marcus Buggert,
Detailed analysis of blood samples
The serious and permanent symptoms of acute shortness of breath are one of the most common and most typical symptoms of the long coco. The researchers also studied the samples of a group of patients who had recovered from their previous COVID-19 and who had, interesting, none of these proteins in their blood.
The discovery was based on a detailed analysis of the blood samples of groups of independent patients in Sweden and the United Kingdom, which had never been done before.
The 265 patients who participated in the study had contracted COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic when no vaccine was yet available. Using advanced techniques, researchers have measured thousands of proteins in blood plasma, which they have linked to patient symptoms. They also used flow cytometry to carry out immunological analyzes.
“By identifying high proteins in affected patients, we create a platform from which to develop diagnostic tools and new targeted therapies,” said Dr. Bugpert. “This is particularly important because there are no specific biomarkers and treatments for a long cocvid. »»
Symptom biology
Study results expose underlying biological processes that may lead some patients to feel serious symptoms long after the previous COVVI-19.
The next step in research is to understand what underlies this scheme by studying pulmonary and gastrointestinal fabrics. In doing so, the researchers hope to locate the source of the proteins identified and discover whether there are inflammation damage or remaining tissues in specific organs of patients with long covid.
The study was financed by the Polybio Research Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the National Research Program COVID-19 SCILIFELAB / KAW COVID-19, the KNUT and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the KAROLINSKA Institute. Some co-authors receive advice and conference costs from pharmaceutical companies, but they are not connected to this study.
