Coronavirus is filling some patients’ lungs with liquid ‘jelly’, doctors have warned.
The jelly was discovered by researchers from Umea University in Sweden during autopsies of some deceased COVID-19 patients, and is described as a ‘clear liquid jelly’.
According to the researchers, the lungs resemble those of ‘someone who has drowned’.
An analysis of the jelly revealed that it consists of a substance called hyaluronan, which is usually found in connective tissue.
Hyaluronan is also produced synthetically in the beauty industry for lip augmentation and anti-wrinkle treatments.
In a statement, the researchers explained: “Since hyaluronan can bind large amounts of water in its web of long molecules, it forms a jelly-like substance.
“And it is this process that runs riot in the alveoli of COVID-19 patients’ lungs resulting in the patient needing ventilator care and, in worst case, dies from respiratory failure.”
In other diseases, such as gallbladder attacks, a drug called Hymecromone is use to slow down the production of hyaluronan.
And cortisone, a steroid, has also been shown to reduce the production of hyaluronan.
Urban Hellman, a researcher on the study, said: “There are already therapies that either slow down the body’s production of this jelly or breaks down the jelly through an enzyme.
“It has previously been assumed that the promising preliminary results would be linked to the general anti-inflammatory properties of cortisone, but in addition to those beliefs, cortisone may also reduce the production of hyaluronan, which may reduce the amount of jelly in the lungs.”
