Svar Life Science

June 30, 2020

Neuronal injury in COVID-19 patients

It is well known that COVID-19 commonly affects the respiratory system in patients. However, symptoms also include neurological symptoms, such as headache and loss of the sense of smell. In fact, reports from Wuhan in China indicated that there was CNS involvement in just over one third of patients hospitalized with severe infection.

In two recent papers, COVID-19 patients were analyzed for neuronal injury using neurofilament light chain protein (NfL), which is a common prognostic biomarker for various neurological disorders. NfL can be used to reliably detect CNS injury and can also be used as a prognostic marker of clinical outcome.

June 30, 2020

Neuronal injury in COVID-19 patients

It is well known that COVID-19 commonly affects the respiratory system in patients. However, symptoms also include neurological symptoms, such as headache and loss of the sense of smell. In fact, reports from Wuhan in China indicated that there was CNS involvement in just over one third of patients hospitalized with severe infection.

In two recent papers, COVID-19 patients were analyzed for neuronal injury using neurofilament light chain protein (NfL), which is a common prognostic biomarker for various neurological disorders. NfL can be used to reliably detect CNS injury and can also be used as a prognostic marker of clinical outcome.

Ameres and colleagues found that mild to moderate COVID-19 is associated with an increase in NfL levels, indicating neuronal damage. Furthermore, NfL levels were consistently higher in the older group of patients.

In the second paper, Kanberg and colleagues analyzed NfL levels and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAp) in COVID-19 patients. Typically, in acute brain injury plasma levels of GFAp rise and fall rapidly with a half-life of 1-2 days, whereas NfL levels increase later and remain elevated for over 10 days.

In the paper, the authors found that astrocytic injury may be common in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases, while neuronal injury, as measured by NfL levels, occurs later in the progression of the disease and occurs mainly in patients with severe disease.

These results are of great interest to us as we recently expanded our long list of diagnostic tests with NfL analysis in serum. Wieslab Diagnostic Services now offer NfL testing in serum and CSF with quick response times.

We use our long experience and knowhow to help doctors provide fast and accurate diagnoses so patients can get the right treatment at the right time

 

NfL in serum

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