A blood test taken at the time of Covid-19 infection could help determine whether a person will develop Covid long-term, according to new research. The study, published in the Lancet eBioMedicine journal, analyzed proteins in the blood of health care workers infected with SARS-CoV-2 and compared them to samples collected from health care workers who were not infected. Usually, the protein levels in the body are stable. But the researchers found a dramatic difference in levels of some of the proteins up to six weeks after infection, suggesting disruption of some important biological processes. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, they identified a “signature” in the abundance of several proteins that successfully predicted whether the person would start reporting persistent symptoms a year after infection. The researchers say that if these findings are repeated in a larger, independent group of patients, a test may be offered alongside a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that could predict the likelihood of developing Covid long in humans.
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