Revealing new finding in the fight against the novel coronavirus, researchers have made significant progress in understanding the Covid-19 virus and offered possible ways to stop the pandemic. According to the study published in the journal Critical Care Explorations, a major complication occurring in most critically ill Covid-19 patients is clotting in the lung's small blood vessels which leads to low oxygen levels in the body. They discovered that Covid-19 patients had elevated levels of three molecules (hyaluronic acid, syndecan-1 and P-selectin.) The first two molecules are products broken down from small hair-like structures (the glycocalyx) which line the inside of the blood vessels. The team suggests that two therapies may hold promise for treating blood clots in Covid-19 patients: platelet inhibitors to stop platelets from sticking and molecules to protect and restore the inner lining of blood vessels.

Source: dna August 27, 2020 09:00 UTC