Using some of the blood samples donated by our CSS Biobank participants, we are looking to see if any blood markers associated with diseases like heart disease and diabetes are also linked to having long COVID. This may give us clues as to why long COVID happens and who is at risk of getting it.
About metabolites
When the body breaks down food, drugs, or other chemicals, it creates new biomolecules which have various functions, such as supporting growth or maintaining health. For many diseases, like heart disease and diabetes, we are able to measure the levels of some of these biomolecules (or metabolites), to give an idea of someone’s risk of developing the disease or to tell us how well-controlled it is. An example is measuring cholesterol in the blood.
We noticed early in the pandemic that people who already have certain conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, got quite unwell with COVID. Research by a Finnish company, which has developed a single test that can measure 249 blood metabolites, shows that if you have less healthy values on some of these tests, you are more likely to get hospitalised with COVID-19. The same markers are linked to health conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
What we are finding
So far, it looks like similar changes to those found by the Finnish researchers are found in participants with long COVID, but not for all. In particular, blood fats like cholesterol and fatty acids might be quite important. This is very useful, as it suggests long COVID might also share similar causes with other conditions that we already know how to prevent and treat, so we are now also looking at links with diet, exercise and the microbes that live in our guts.
We will post updates as we learn more.