About ten to twenty percent of people will end up with long COVID, a chronic condition that scientists and medical professionals are still learning about, even though some people who are infected with SARS – CoV – 2, the virus that transmits the disease SCID-19, do not experience any symptoms at all and others recover within 1-2 weeks. Long COVID has a variety of symptoms that can differ greatly from one patient to another. In order to learn more about long COVID and how to diagnose it, scientists have now discovered proteins in blood plasma. The Journal of Translational Medicine has published the findings.
According to Dr. Douglas Fraser, a professor at the Schulich School of Medicine & amp, Dentistry, and doctor at London Health Sciences Center( LHSC ), people with long COVID may experience symptoms like fatigue, breathing problems, or brain fog. Anything we can do to learn more about this disorder and pinpoint potential treatment targets is crucial because” their quality of life can be significantly altered.”
Some of the proteins that cells release into blood are known as the plasma proteome and can be found in plasma. The immune system’s defense against viral infections is influenced by many of these proteins. Long COVID appears to cause these proteins to change.
According to nephrologist Dr. Michael Nicholson, an associate scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute( Lawson ), identifying the proteins that are impacted by long COVID can help clinicians and researchers understand how the illness affects patients and what mechanisms may be responsible for specific symptoms.
In this study, blood plasma samples from patients with long COVID were gathered, and the plasma proteomes were contrasted with those from healthy people and patients who had severe CIVD.
Over 3, 000 blood plasma proteins from various patients were simultaneously analyzed using new techniques. In order to identify the precise changes that take place in long COVID, we used a novel bioinformatic pipeline— a type of artificial intelligence — to analyze the proteins, according to Cristiana Iosef, research analyst at Lawson’s Childrens Health Research Institute.
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Unique plasma proteome patterns were discovered in this study, which suggested that people with long COVID may be experiencing chronic inflammation as a result of changes in their immune systems and blood vessels. These changes eventually lead to issues in particular organs like the brain and heart.
The researchers are looking into the possibility of using these proteins as the target of a therapeutic intervention.
Fraser said,” We can use the data and screen drug databases to better understand which medications would be best to target the changes we identified in long COVID patients once we identify these signaling patterns within the blood plasma.” The identified medications may be used in lengthy COVID clinical trials in the future with this understanding.
Sources: Journal of Translational Medicine, University of Western Ontario