A blood test capable of determining who is at risk of suffering from persistent symptoms of covid, and who has a good chance of not having covid-long: this is not science fiction, but the result of work conducted by British researchers on a small group of 156 patients.
Thanks to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm, researchers at University College London (Great Britain) were able to identify the “signature” of covid among the body’s proteins, making it possible to predict whether the affected person by the virus would or would not suffer from covid-long, one year after infection. They found that at the time of first infection, abnormal levels of 20 proteins studied were predictive of persisting symptoms after one year. Most of these proteins were linked to anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory processes.
A blood test that could be deployed quickly
“Our study shows that even a mild or asymptomatic form of Covid-19 disrupts the profile of proteins in our blood plasma,” says Dr. Gaby Captur, lead author of the study. “The blood test tool has yet to be validated in a larger group of patients. But using our approach, a test that predicts covid-long at the time of initial infection could be deployed quickly and cost-effectively,” adds he.
According to a study by Public Health France on Covid-long, 30% of people who had an infection with SARS-CoV-2 more than three months previously still have symptoms. This prevalence decreases over time, but more than 20% of people still show signs of covid-long 18 months after infection.
Source : Plasma proteomic signature predicts who will get persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infectionThe Lancet, September 2022
