How seriously do people get sick with a corona infection? So far, this question has hardly been answered in advance. A biomarker in the blood could now provide information.
Zurich – As has been shown in many scientific studies so far, Corona patients are affected to different degrees by Covid-19. There are people who survive the virus relatively well – ignoring possible long-term consequences – and those who are going through a severe course of the disease and sometimes even have to be treated in the intensive care unit. The exact course of the disease has so far been difficult to determine, despite indicators such as risk group *. A recent study from Switzerland could help.
Corona: Biomarker provides an early indication of severe disease progression
A scientific team from Zurich, with support from Tübingen, Nantes and Toulouse, has succeeded in locating a clue in the blood: The researchers have discovered a biomarker that shows at the beginning of an infection how seriously the person will become ill. Specifically, these are the so-called natural killer T cells in the blood.
Killer cells belong to the white blood cells and are responsible for the early immune defense. You can recognize changed body cells and then destroy them. As a result, cells infected by pathogens are attacked. The authors of the study argue that the proportion of killer cells in the blood can also be used to determine the extent of an infection.
Corona: Based on the number of killer T cells – prediction of severe Covid course
Burkhard Becher, professor at the Institute for Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich, explains: “Based on the number of killer T cells in the blood, a severe course of Covid-19 can be predicted with a high degree of certainty – even on the day of admission to the hospital . “
The study, which was accepted by the specialist magazine Immunity at the beginning of May, shows that a severe course of the disease is accompanied by an excessive response from the immune system: “The enormous production of messenger substances, known as the cytokine storm, causes a massive inflammatory reaction in the body. Immune cells migrate en masse into the lungs, where they disrupt gas exchange, ”explains Becher in a press release from the University of Zurich.
Corona: Analysis of blood samples – Covid-19-specific immune signature identified
The scientists analyzed blood samples from corona patients in France and Germany and compared them with data from patients with severe pneumonia. Because an immune reaction in this area is not only triggered by Covid-19 *. As the University of Zurich writes, the research team relied on a high-dimensional cytometry method with which proteins on and within cells can be examined and compared with one another.
After comparing the immune response of corona patients with those of the comparison group, it was clear that Sars-Cov-2 * provides an individual blood count: “The immune responses in the various types of pneumonia are very similar and part of a general inflammatory reaction that is often found in patients sees in the intensive care unit. However, T cells and natural killer cells behave in a unique way with Covid-19 and define a kind of pattern in the immune system: the Covid-19-specific immune signature, “explains Becher.
Corona: “Then we can predict a difficult course with almost one hundred percent certainty”
So the simple calculation: fewer killer T cells mean the disease progresses more seriously. The new findings can help contain the pandemic, as Becher explains to Deutschlandfunk: “If we look very early, that is, on the day the patients are admitted, on day zero, so to speak, we can already see when the number of these natural killer T cells disappears or goes down very far so that we can then predict a severe course with almost one hundred percent certainty. “
The prediction of severe disease courses would be elementary for the health situation in Germany. Because then, even if there is a shortage of beds, hospitals could decide ahead of time who needs intensive medical treatment and for whom, “simple” care is sufficient. This could improve the so-called triage. With this method, corona patients are prioritized according to the extent of medical care – but sometimes with subjective parameters. Now there is apparently a helpful indicator: the killer T cells (as with material from the University of Zurich) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
