More than 250 proteins have been identified linked to severe cases of Covid-19

NA new study published in Medicine Cell ReportsIn the past, researchers have sought to understand why some patients die from Covid-19 while others, who appear sick alike, live.

The team led by Marcia Goldberg, an infectious disease specialist and physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, analyzed the mechanisms that could contribute to the deaths of 384 people. How can the GalileoThe researchers chose to perform a protein analysis consisting of studying the group of proteins in a cell, tissue, or organism.

Blood samples were taken from 306 patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 and 78 others who showed similar symptoms but tested negative for coronavirus. This group was performed three times during the follow-up period.

Following the course of the disease, researchers have found that most individuals with Covid-19 have a stable ‘fingerprint’ of the protein, regardless of the severity of the condition. “But we also found a small fraction of patients with the disease who did not show a typical pro-inflammatory response to others,” says researcher Michael Philbin, in a note cited by Galileo, who explained that this was mainly observed in elderly people with chronic illnesses and weakened immune systems. . Note that the body reacts by producing proteins that attack the virus.

In the second phase of the study, protein “fingerprints” were compared to patients with less severe and less severe conditions. Through this analysis, it was possible to identify, in the worst case scenario, more than 250 proteins associated with disease severity. The most common of these is interleukin-6 (IL-6), which has steadily increased rates in patients who have died. In people who survived extreme conditions, this protein grew and then decreased.

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