The new biomarker – the number of natural killer T cells in the blood helps identify patients with severe COVID-19. The biomarkers also help in determining the type of treatment measure need to be taken like transfer to the ICU, frequency of oxygen measurements and type of therapy needed to provide the best care.
The biomarker was discovered by a team led by Professor Burkhard Becher at the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich, working with researchers from Tübingen, Toulouse and Nantes.
“The number of natural killer T cells in the blood can be used to predict severe cases of COVID-19 with a high degree of certainty – even on a patient’s first day in hospital,” says Burkhard Becher.
The researchers were able to identify distinctive SARS-CoV-2 immune response nature supporting the use of natural killer T cells as biomarker to recognize patients who are at the risk of developing severe COVID-19 and explore new treatment strategies.
‘Natural killer T cells are predictive biomarker in COVID19’
“Predictive biomarkers are very useful for making these decisions. They help clinicians provide patients suffering severe symptoms with the best care possible,” says Stefanie Kreutmair, first author of the study
With the advent of high-dimensional cytometry that permits to distinguish many surface and intracellular proteins in millions of individual cells and process them using computer algorithms, the immune cells which are used as biomarkers in COVID-19 can be assessed with high accuracy.
Thus, immune cells like natural killer T cells have the full potential to become predictive biomarker in COVID-19 diagnosis for early detection of severe symptoms and avoid long time complications.
Source: Eurekalert
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