A new PCR test could detect the risks of severe forms in a patient

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Covid-19 screening tests are evolving. A new method has just been developed by French researchers. It could in particular make it possible to discover, from a PCR test, whether a patient is still contagious or not. This new method could also detect possible serious forms, reports The echoes, Wednesday.

Today, a PCR test can only detect traces of the virus in a person’s nose. Corn in a press release, the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) affirms that it would be possible to better distinguish the patients. According to the researchers, this would require measuring type I interferon (IFN-I), a protein that acts against the coronavirus during contamination.

Adapt the isolation period according to the results

Thanks to a new innovative technology, the measurement could be carried out directly on the swab taken for the PCR test. In works published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, scientists claim that the level of interferon is proportional to the presence of the infectious virus. A high level of this protein would therefore mean that the virus is active and that the patient can potentially infect other people.

“If there is a little virus and no IFN-I in your sample, you have been sick but are no longer contagious. Conversely, if there is a large quantity of virus and IFN-I, this pleads in favor of isolation, ”explains Dr Sophie Trouillet-Assant, research associate who signed the study. In addition, French researchers made another discovery, still concerning type I interferon.

Patients in intensive care suffering from a severe form of Covid-19 had too little of this protein to be detected. These patients would actually produce anti-IFN-I autoantibodies, which thus act against the antiviral action of the protein. Thus, during PCR tests with interferon analysis, it could be possible to detect possible serious forms in patients upstream. And more targeted treatments could even be developed.





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