Scientists in Chhattisgarh develop new biomarkers to predict Covid-19 severity in early stage

New Delhi: In a breakthrough development in medical field, scientists in Chhattisgarh have unveiled a novel set of biomarkers that could revolutionize the way Covid-19 severity is predicted and managed. The country’s first biomarker kit, developed by a team of scientists at the Multi-Disciplinary Research Unit (MRU) of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Hospital, Raipur, could provide early-stage severity assessment of the disease.

The research, published in Scientific Reports, a journal by the esteemed Nature Publishing Group, holds promise for enhancing patient care during the ongoing pandemic.

The new biomarkers have been designed to identify patients at risk of severe Covid-19 illness at the early stages of infection, resulting in better allocation of resources, reduce healthcare costs, and ultimately saving lives.

By utilizing leftover samples from routine Covid-19 tests, the team has developed a method with impressive accuracy-boasting a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 94% in non-comorbid patients.

With the help of this kit, doctors will be able to decide whether it is necessary to hospitalize the patient or he can recover at home only through medicines. Also, this kit can also tell what type of medicines the patient will need, which will make the treatment more effective and safer.

The unpredictability of Covid-19 outcomes has been a major challenge throughout the pandemic, making it difficult to determine which patients might require advanced medical intervention early on. Under the leadership of Dr Jagannath Pal, the team began exploring fundamental issues related to pandemic management focusing on creating a tool that could also be useful for future pandemics.

Considering the commercial potential of innovation, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Hospital, Raipur has applied for both Indian and international patents. The MRU’s research also aligns with the Prime Minister’s “Make in India” initiative. The project was supported by the health administration of Chhattisgarh and funded by the Department of Health Research (DHR), Government of India.

The MRU’s breakthrough aims to address this challenge by enabling healthcare providers to predict severe cases more reliably, thus allowing for timely and targeted interventions. MRU scientist Dr. Yogita Rajput also made a significant contribution in this research. With this unique invention of Chhattisgarh, the fight against Covid-19 in the country will now become more powerful.

It could streamline healthcare processes and reduce the strain on medical facilities by identifying high-risk patients more efficiently.

How does the kit work?

The test results determine the response of adaptive immunity (T cell response) to new virus infection. The test required input of leftover RNA following the routine COVID-19 diagnosis by RT-PCR. Complementary DNA is prepared from RNA samples by reverse transcription. The complementary DNA is used for subsequent qPCR reaction to determine expression of the signature genes. By analyzing the level of the genes we determine a “Severity Score”. If the score is lower than a cut-off value it indicates the good immune response (T-cell) suggesting low risk and patient could recover without requirement of advance medical facility or extra drug treatments. If the score is higher than a cut-off value it indicates the poor immune response (T-cell) suggesting high risk and patient may required advance medical facility or extra drug treatments for recovery or may scummed to death.

The same test could be used for other virus infection also. However for each virus infection the test should optimize to resetting the parameters and cut-off value.