Early warning in the blood: In the future, a blood test could perhaps predict whether a long-Covid syndrome is imminent after a coronavirus infection. Because researchers have identified 20 proteins in the blood that indicate at the onset of infection whether someone will still suffer from Covid symptoms a year later.
Based on this protein pattern, an algorithm was able to identify all later long-Covid patients among the test subjects. If the indicator suitability of these proteins is confirmed, this could help in the early detection and treatment of patients at risk.
Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has lasting consequences for many of those affected: Months later they suffer from chronic exhaustion, muscle pain, neurological problems and other symptoms – they have Long Covid.
What causes these late effects and why only some people develop long Covid or the post-Covid syndrome that only occurs a few weeks after the acute infection is unclear. Clear biomarkers for these late effects are also still missing.
A discovery made by doctors led by Gabriella Captur from University College London could now remedy the situation. For their study, they examined blood samples from British nurses that were taken weekly at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
54 of these test persons became infected with SARS-CoV-2, 1010 other persons served as controls. Using 91 blood proteins, the team wanted to determine whether and how these biomolecules change over the course of a corona infection.
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It turned out: “Even a mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 disrupts the normal profile of the proteins in our blood plasma,” reports Captur. For twelve of these biomolecules, the blood levels had already changed significantly when the corona infection began, and other proteins were then added over the next few days and weeks.
“This means that even with a mild course of Covid-19, our biological processes are strongly affected,” says Captur.
Even more significant, however, were some of the protein changes that were particularly pronounced in later long-Covid sufferers.
“We have identified a proteomic profile that predicts persistent symptoms with a high degree of reliability,” the researchers report. These biomarkers consist of 20 proteins that are already altered at the beginning of the acute coronavirus infection in patients with later long covid.
Among the indicator proteins are biomolecules that indicate cell damage, but also immunological and inflammatory processes. “One of the proteins that most clearly predicted persistent symptoms is the precursor protein of beta-amyloid (APP), which acts as an anticoagulant in blood serum,” say Captur and her colleagues.
Also of high prognostic relevance is HSCB, a protein that is important for the iron and energy metabolism of the blood cells. “It is plausible that HSCB is released into the blood when blood cells and their mitochondria are destroyed by Covid,” the team explains.
According to the researchers, this protein signature could in future help to identify an impending long covid in the case of an acute corona infection.
The team demonstrated how this could work with a supplementary test: They trained an adaptive algorithm to recognize the long-Covid biomarkers and then gave it the blood values of all test subjects. In fact, the system was able to identify all eleven later long-Covid affected people based on the blood samples from the beginning of the acute infection.
“Our tool for the long-Covid forecast still has to be validated on a larger group of patients,” says Captur. “But then our approach could be used to develop a cheaper and faster test that can be used as soon as the corona infection begins.” The method used for the protein analysis of blood samples is also already established in hospitals and laboratories and automated and therefore easy to implement .
Such early detection would have the advantage that those affected could be treated with antiviral agents and other therapeutic agents during the acute infection – in the hope of preventing long Covid syndrome. (EBioMedicine, 2022; doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104293)
Those: University College London
This article was written by Nadja Podbregar
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The original of this article “Biomarkers for Long Covid identified” comes from scinexx.
