Scientists could predict who will suffer ‘long Covid’
SCIENTISTS studying the blood of coronavirus patients have found changes to the immune system in those who go on to suffer from the lung issues associated with long Covid.
A team at the University of Manchester studied patients throughout their recovery and for six months after their hospitalisation for Covid-19.
And what they found - changes to certain cells in those patients who went on to develop long Covid - could in future help identify at-risk patients and even prevent the onset of the painful condition.
Study author Dr Joanne Konkel from The University of Manchester said: “What we’ve done is a small step on the way to understand it but it is very exciting.
“More than 100m have had Covid worldwide, that’s so many people. Among those people you are looking at variable rates of long Covid. What’s driving it? Why are some getting it and some not?
“These are important questions.
“Long Covid is going to be a problem in the UK for a long time for a large number of people.
“It gives us something to start thinking about to understand these patients.”
Dr Konkel said the team looked at a particular type of immune cell in patients who had Covid to see if there were long-term changes.
Sure enough, the team discovered in some patients high levels of ‘cytotoxic T cells’, a type of lymphocyte used by the body to fight viral infections which can also destroy other cells when overactivated.
The patients also had elevated production of special types of proteins called type-1 cytokines.
And it was in these patients whose cells failed to normalise that the team tended to see the symptoms of long Covid, which include lung issues and breathlessness.
Dr Konkel added: “It wasn’t in all patients but there was definitely a pattern there.
“The big question now is if this is a contributing factor to long Covid or it could just be something that happens because they have got long Covid.”
Either way, the finding is important because it could be used as a marker to identify those patients most at risk and to help find an intervention.
The team - based at the University’s Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation and supported by the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC) - looked at the immune cell characteristics of more than 80 patients who had been discharged between July and October 2020.
The team were also behind an earlier finding around patterns found in the blood of those Covid-19 patients most likely to end up in intensive care.
The patients from this latest study were from Salford Royal, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe Hospital and North Manchester General. Describing the issue as a ‘key area of research’, she added “If you’ve had Covid and now can’t walk up the stairs this is going to have an impact on your life forever.
“This is important.”