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The scientists in United States have reportedly developed a new genomic test that can predict a patient's risk of developing severe Covid-19, which in turn could help doctors quickly begin tailored treatment. The researchers noted that test has proved over 90% accurate at predicting patient outcomes for Covid-19 among over two dozen patients in intensive care and 100 patients from publicly available data.
The scientists further noted that the test, which is called CovGENE, analyses genes expressed in a person's blood to determine whether they may experience a severe disease course with increased risk of death. Alexandra Kadl, from the University of Virginia, US said, “we have come far in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 in the past two years. Regardless, we still struggle to identify patients at highest risk for severe disease. Our study uses a gene-analysis approach to identify an immune cell signature, distinct from other respiratory illnesses, that correlates with worse outcomes."
Notably, the approach, described recently in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, has the potential to help evaluate patients' immune profile with commonly, readily available tests to identify patients at risk for bad outcomes.- The researchers said that such patients would benefit from closer monitoring and advanced therapies to aid their recovery. Immune profiling helps to understand why one person may differ from another in their immune response to a virus, looking specifically at the immune markers (proteins) and cells present over time.
It is important to note that the analysis can help determine the likelihood of disease, individual response to a virus and the impact of vaccinations. CovGENE's developer, AMPEL Biosolutions, is seeking to partner with a diagnostic testing company or pharmaceutical company to bring the approach to market as a simple PCR-based blood test.
Peter Lipsky, AMPEL's CEO, chief medical officer and co-founder said, “this unique collaboration with our colleagues from the University of Virginia has provided an easy and novel means to assess an individual patient's response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and predict the clinical outcome. Now that this unique approach has been validated, we look forward to its rapid development as a precision-medicine tool that can improve the outcome of patients with Covid-19 and reduce the number of hospitalisations, especially the most vulnerable."
(With inputs from PTI)