Although some people would like to believe that we are at the last stage of COVID-19 pandemic, this disease is still very dangerous. It may overwhelm hospitals again and doctors will need to see who needs extra attention to survive. Researchers at the University of Queensland discovered that cell fitness can be a good indicator of potential health outcomes of COVID-19 patients.
SARS-CoV-2 virus causes a strong immune response, but the ability to survive the infection depends on many different factors, including cell fitness. Image credit: NIAID via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
.jpg){kind=link}
COVID-19 is a dangerous viral infection, even though most people survive just fine. However, many end up in hospitals and present medical professionals with a massive challenge – who needs more medical attention than others? Who is more likely to die from COVID-19?
Researchers identified a cellular fitness marker, known as hfwe-Lose, as an effective way to predict health outcomes in COVID patients. Hfwe-Lose helps was identified studying sub-optimal cells in patients who had been hospitalised or died from COVID at the start of the pandemic. Cell fitness marker is part of the method the body uses to remove unwanted (unfit) cells.
Researchers conducted a post-mortem analysis on COVID-infected lung tissues and discovered that this particular marker influenced a patient's immune response to infection. In simple terms, patients who had higher levels of hfwe-Lose biomarker had acute lung injury. In fact, hfwe-Lose factor is more accurate at predicting health outcomes in COVID-19 patients than well-known risk factors such as age, chronic diseases, inflammation and others.
Obviously, understanding the biggest risk factors and predictors of COVID-19 outcomes is very important in this time in history. We need to improve our COVID-19 response and now is as good of a time as any. Hfwe-Lose is easy to detect and can help doctors make well-informed decisions about the care and attention each COVID-19 patient actually requires.
Dr Arutha Kulasinghe, one of the authors of the study, said: “The cell fitness marker would enable medical teams to identify patients more likely to develop severe symptoms, provide closer monitoring and earlier access to hospitalisation and intensive care. We are now looking to validate our findings in larger patient populations to determine the robustness of the marker.”
When will COVID-19 end? No one knows – we are not close to the end of the pandemic. The Northern hemisphere is entering the colder part of the year, which is typically worse for viral respiratory diseases. This is why understanding all risk factors and predictors is so important – we need to be prepared for a possible influx of new COVID-19 patients.
Source: University of Queensland