THE ESSENTIAL
- 2,071 people have been hospitalized in France due to Covid-19 in the past seven days.
- 149 people have died of Covid-19 in hospital in France in the past seven days.
224 people have been hospitalized in critical care units in the past seven days in France due to Covid-19, according to Public health France. But these serious forms could soon be avoided thanks to a new test, called CovGENE. The results of the tests of this device have just been presented in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.
Analyze genes in the blood
This test could make it possible to identify patients at risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19 and therefore start a more personalized treatment upstream. In the scientists’ tests, the test was reportedly accurate 90% of the time.
The method used by CovGENE is as follows: it analyzes the genes expressed in a person’s blood to determine whether Covid-19 can evolve into a serious form and be life-threatening.
Targeting the immune profile of patients
“We have made a lot of progress in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 over the past two years, explains Alexandra Kadl, one of the authors of the study. We are still struggling to identify the patients most at risk of severe disease. Our study uses a genetic analysis approach to identify an immune cell marker, distinct from other respiratory diseases, that correlates with the most severe outcomes. This could help assess the immune profile of patients with readily available tests to identify those most at risk of severe disease and who could therefore benefit from closer monitoring and advanced therapies to aid their recovery.“.
Reduce the number of hospitalizations
AMPEL Biosolutions, which is developing CovGENE, is now looking to partner with a diagnostics or pharmaceutical company to market the product as an easily performed blood test.
“Now that this unique approach has been validated, we look forward to its rapid development as a precision medicine tool that could improve the odds of patients with Covid-19 and reduce the number of hospitalizations, especially among patients. more vulnerable patients“, says Peter Lipsky, researcher who participated in this work.
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