Who is seriously ill? The protein is supposed to provide the information

• Corona risk factorsResearchers are discovering new things Biomarker
• protein Should Severe illness pridect
• The decisive factor is that Protein concentration
• Visions can Immunotherapy Could

Some people who have contracted the Coronavirus hardly notice it. Others become seriously ill and have to be hospitalized. About the Risk factors Even today – one year after the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic – there is still no absolute clarity. Erlangen Researchers She now has references to one Biomarker Discover, The dependent Anticipate the development of severe disease and may even be cured.

One thing is for sure so far: Older adults have a higher chance of getting seriously ill from Covid-19. Other factors, such as smoking, increase the risk of serious diseases. Obesity can also aid severe progression.

However, there is still no agreement on the mechanisms that increase the risk of developing severe corona diseases. And time and time again, people become seriously ill and don’t really belong to any at-risk group.

Corona disease cycle: Protein concentration should help predict

Two doctors from Erlangen – Dr. George Weber, Deputy Director of the Clinic and Chief Physician of the Surgical Clinic at the University Hospital Erlangen, Dr. Alan Bennard, employee of the surgical clinic – now there is hope for better identification of severe diseases. Treatment is even possible.

With other researchers from the working group.Cellular immunity in cases of inflammation and cancer“The University Hospital Erlangen is important Verhendicator To find out if the viral infection is mild or severe: Immunbottnstof interleukin-3. The results of the study appear in the journal Nature Communications“.

Interleukin-3 is a proteinWhich Stimulates the natural human immune defense. It stimulates blood formation and is therefore used, for example, after bone marrow transplants, in general anemia or after chemotherapy to enhance blood formation.

Weber and Banard now showed in a study that A. Low levels of interleukin 3 In blood plasma often with a Severe course of Covid-19 disease Going hand in hand. Interleukin-3 plays a major role in regulating the body’s immune response. At the site of inflammation – for example, SARS-Cov-2 pneumonia – it stimulates cells there to produce the protein CXCL12.

Immunotherapy: A new treatment method can protect the lungs from infection with the Coronavirus

This protein communicates with plasmablastic dendritic cells – nonspecific immune cells that normally circulate in the bloodstream. CXCL12, so to speak, attracts them to the inflamed lungs, where it limits the proliferation of the virus that causes them, “explains Dr. Weber. In other words: Interleukin-3 significantly improves the body’s immune defense indirectly and focuses on it.

Thus the interleukin-3 level can provide an important clue for an acute course. So far, this evaluation can only be based on more rudimentary criteria – such as age or some past illness.

But people who do not belong to any at-risk group could have very little interleukin-3 in their blood. With this, the difficult cycle has come as a surprise so far, and proper medical care may be too late, ”Dr. Weber says to look.

Now, based on the results of the study, important decisions about treating Covid-19 patients can be made early. More than that: it is also possible to visualize this in perspective To develop immunotherapyInhaled form, Interleukin-3 is used to precisely protect the lungs from virus infection.