Scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have identified how and why Covid-19 causes life-threatening blood clots, which could save the lives of patients with severe cases of the virus.
Previously, scientists had concluded that blood clotting was a significant cause of death in patients with Covid-19.
But new research by the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences examining blood samples has learned why and how it can happen.
Scientists have found that a balance between molecules that cause blood clotting is disrupted in patients with severe cases of Covid.
The blood of Covid-19 patients has higher levels of pro-clotting molecules and lower levels of anti-clotting enzymes.
The research is “critical to developing more effective treatments,” according to Dr Jamie O’Sullivan, the study’s corresponding author and research lecturer within the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology at RCSI.
Dr O’Sullivan said the research was crucial to help patients in severe Covid cases and that it is important to develop “therapeutic intervention” methods for those suffering from clots due to the virus.
She added: “Covid-19 vaccines will continue to be unavailable to many people throughout the world, and it is important that we provide effective treatments to them and to those with breakthrough infections.”
The new discovery could lead to the development of intervention methods that could save the lives of Covid-19 patients who develop blood clots.
