Since the pandemic began, it was immediately evident that there were substantial differences in patients’ response to infection: specifically, to equal symptoms, some needed hospitalization while others could be cared for at home. What distinguishes these two groups? But most of all how is it possible to identify early on people who are at risk of undergoing severe forms of Covid-19?
To answer these questions is now a research Humanitaspublished on Gastro Hep Advances and coordinated by professor Maria Rescigno, head of the Laboratory of Mucosal Immunology and Microbiota of Humanitas and teacher of General Pathology of Humanitas University, in collaboration with dr. Antonio Voza, head of the Humanitas Emergency Department, and Dr. Elena Azzolini, head of the Humanitas Vaccinal Center.
“In a period in which hospitals were particularly under pressure due to the large number of patients – explains Professor Rescigno – being able to predict if the patient could go home or had to stay in the hospital was essential. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, in fact, very little was known about the evolution of the disease, so it could happen that patients were sent home who were then forced to return to the hospital because they had worsened but also to detain patients who could instead be cared for at home “.
The need to find tools capable of guiding therapeutic choices has thus given a strong impetus to research, so much so that, through a new method based on the analysis of saliva and blood, the Humanitas study made it possible to identify three new scorers able to predict severe or mild forms of Covid-19 infection.
«The study was born from our experience on salivary microbiota we have been working on for many years. – explains the Professor – We hypothesized that where the virus is able to penetrate, that is in the mouth and therefore in the saliva, there could be important information. In fact, in the saliva we find a whole series of metabolitesi.e. products that derive from a chemical process linked to the digestion or ingestion of food, which are released by the microbiota and which can contribute to a form of protection of the organismactivating the immune system, or vice versa they can promote infection“.
Through one retrospective studythe researchers of Humanitas they thus analyzed the saliva and blood of hospitalized patients and those treated at home to find out what distinguished the two groups, comparing the data with those collected from healthy and healed subjects.
“It was a very complex approach, based on the analysis of many parameters – says the Professor – thanks also to artificial intelligence thus we have come to isolate two metabolitesMyoinositol and 2 pyrrolidine acetic acid, which together with a protein found in the blood have shown to be correlated to the severity of Covid, therefore to the need for hospitalization or not “.
An important discovery that in the future could also be useful for develop diagnostic tests able to identify a possible serious evolution from Covid-19 early.
“We hope that there is no longer a need for a tool of this type for Covid-19 infection – underlines the researcher – however we know that an approach like the one we used in this study it can be useful for a variety of other applications. L’sanitary emergency gave an important push from this point of view: it put doctors in front of the need to make decisions quickly and then of studying tools that would allow us to do it better“.
There metabolomicsor rather the methodology based on the analysis of saliva metabolites, can therefore be exploited for the treatment of other pathologies?
«We think so – concludes the Professor – This approach that allows you to better understand a patient’s prognosis and therefore the therapy he must receive, can be used for many other pathologies, including some forms of tumors. Identifying in advance what might be the most appropriate therapies for that particular patient is a decisive factor because it will allow us to adopt the right treatment immediately“.
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Source: Vanity Fair
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