COVID Patients’ Blood Shows Who Is Most Likely To Face Illness: Study

Identifying harmful proteins may be helpful as we confront not only variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 but also as new viruses emerge in the future.

Written by Rivanshi Rakhrai April 11, 2023

Covid patients' blood

Researchers have identified specific proteins in the blood plasma of people infected with COVID-19 that may help predict which patients may need to be placed on ventilators to breathe.

The experiments are done by the researchers of Washington University School of Medicine in the US studied blood plasma samples from 332 Covid-19 patients.

The researchers stated

The principal investigator Carlos Cruchaga said, “Identifying harmful proteins may be helpful as we confront not only variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 but also as new viruses emerge in the future”.

“We may able to draw blood from an individual with a COVID infection, check the levels of these key proteins, and quickly determine risk for serious outcomes. We then could use that information to determine the best course of treatment,” Cruchaga said.

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Global research

They identified another five proteins that, when found to be altered in blood plasma as a result of the virus, indicated a likelihood of death for the patient.

“Many of the proteins we identified were related to inflammation and to the body’s immune response, for example, so it wasn’t surprising to find them altered by COVID infection,” Cruchaga said.

“But a subset of these proteins raised the likelihood that patients would need ventilation or go on to die. Using these proteomics approaches, we now have a methodology that allows us to predict problems, and that can be very important for clinical practice,” the researcher said.

Among the 332 COVID-19 patients studied, those whose blood plasma had any of 32 dysregulated proteins—proteins that indicated they might require ventilation to breathe—eventually did require breathing help, typically about a week after admission to the hospital (82 patients).

COVID-19 patients

Of the 332 patients, only those who had alterations in five proteins the scientists linked to severe illness eventually died due to infection (63 patients), according to the researchers.

They also studied similar proteomics data from 297 COVID-19 patients and 76 controls at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and found that the same proteins indicated the eventual need for ventilators and the likelihood of death in both groups of patients.

The research also showed that some of the proteins that were dysregulated during COVID-19 infection were linked to coronary artery disease and Alzheimer’s disease pathways, confirming that COVID-19 can increase the risk for these disorders.

(With PTI Inputs)