Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified biomarkers in the blood associated with symptoms of long COVID, particularly severe respiratory disorders.
MedicalXpress
Summary
- Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Cardiff University identified blood biomarkers linked to severe respiratory symptoms in long COVID patients.
- These proteins were absent in recovered individuals, indicating a specific biomarker for long COVID.
- Researchers hope this discovery will lay the groundwork for new diagnostic tools and targeted treatments, addressing a critical gap in managing long COVID.
On the 30th April, 2025, the Karolinska Institutet published a new research paper in Nature, called “Identification of soluble biomarkers that associate with distinct manifestations of long COVID,” reported on below by MedicalXpress.
Extracts
A new study from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Cardiff University, UK, led by Marcus Buggert, docent at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Huddinge), has identified a set of proteins in the blood of people with long COVID.
The proteins were mainly found in patients with long COVID and severe respiratory problems. This is a biomarker pattern that we know to be linked to inflammatory signal pathways involved in cell death and lung damage and that has also been observed in other patient groups with severe pulmonary disorders.
Says Dr Buggert
The finding was based on a detailed analysis of blood samples from independent patient groups in Sweden and the UK, something that had not been done before.