The study investigated a cellular fitness marker, known as hfwe-Lose, to identify sub-optimal cells in patients who had been hospitalized or died from Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic, according to the study.
“We found that patients with acute lung injury had higher levels of the biomarker in their lower respiratory tract and areas of cell death,” said Arutha Kulasinghe, who participated in the study, published in the medical portal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
For the study, the researchers performed a post-mortem analysis of the lung tissues infected with Covid-19 and found that the cell fitness marker, which is part of the body’s process of removing unwanted cells, influenced a person’s immune response to the infection.
The researchers also found that cellular fitness was more important than age, inflammation, and coexisting diseases in predicting health outcomes, such as hospitalization and death, in patients with Covid-19.
The scientists believe that the results of the study, which was conducted together with the University of Copenhagen, could be useful in prioritizing medical attention to coronavirus patients, as cell fitness can be determined by a simple nasal swab.
Text and images courtesy of EFE
