Arushi Bidhuri
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The novel coronavirus has expanded and shrank the world in unimaginable ways and taken millions of lives in the way. While some people have survived the outcomes of the deadly COVID-19, others became a victim of severe COVID. Elderly people and those living with an underlying health disease are at a greater risk of severe complications or death. But what if there was a test that could predict the severity of the deadly disease and help you survive the outcomes?
Researchers at the Nagourney Cancer Institute and Metabolomycs, Inc. a study that showed that COVID-19 related illness severity and death can be predicted by a blood test that is conducted at the time of diagnosis.
For the study, 82 individuals with RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 were compared to 31 healthy controls in collaboration with researchers from the Cassems Medical Center in Campo Grande, Brazil. Each patient's blood was drawn and analysed for biochemical composition using quantitative mass spectrometry. Researchers were able to measure minute amounts of metabolites in the blood using this technique. Researchers discovered metabolic characteristics that could differentiate moderate COVID-19 infection from more severe and fatal variants.
"It has long been recognized that persons with certain co-morbidities such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 infection," said Dr Nagourney, lead researcher. "Our results now confirm the metabolic basis of COVID-19 severity. By using amino acid, lipid, and other blood measures, we showed that subtle, previously undetectable levels of liver, mitochondrial and immune abnormalities underlie each persons' predisposition to life-threatening COVID-19 infection."
The implications could be profound as it could enable the healthcare community to stratify patients based on individual risk, allowing doctors to allocate medical resources more effectively and treat those at greatest risk earlier in the course of the disease before severe complications set in.
The findings suggest that the outcome is determined by the individual's response to the infection, rather than the infecting organism, in this case, the COVID-19 virus. This could have significant consequences for the management of newer variations when they emerge.
"When we compared the usual risk factors such as obesity against our new metabolic signatures, the biochemical measures proved highly discriminatory and may in the future enable us to find those otherwise healthy, younger patients who are destined to develop more severe disease, all in time to intervene," Nagourney said.