Scientists Identify Why COVID-19 Patients Develop Life-Threatening Blood Clots

Scientists have identified how and why some Covid-19 patients can develop life-threatening blood clots, which could lead to targeted therapies that prevent them.

The work, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Previous research has shown that blood clotting is a leading cause of death in patients with Covid-19. To understand why that clotting occurs, the researchers analyzed blood samples taken from patients with Covid-19 at the Beaumont Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Dublin.

They found that the balance between a molecule that causes clotting, called von Willebrand Factor (VWF), and its regulator, called ADAMTS13, is severely disrupted in patients with severe Covid-19.

Compared to control groups, the blood of Covid-19 patients had higher levels of the pro-clotting VWF molecules and lower levels of the anti-clotting ADAMTS13. In addition, the researchers identified other changes in proteins that caused the reduction in ADAMTS13.

dr. Jamie O’Sullivan. Credit: RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

“Our research helps provide insight into the mechanisms that cause serious blood clots in patients with Covid-19, which is critical to developing more effective treatments,” said Dr. Jamie O’Sullivan, the study’s corresponding author and research lecturer at the Irish Centre. for Vascular Biology and the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at RCSI.

“While more research is needed to determine whether targets aimed at correcting ADAMTS13 and VWF levels could be a successful therapeutic intervention, it is important that we continue to develop therapies for patients with Covid-19. Covid-19 vaccines will remain unavailable to many people around the world, and it is important that we provide effective treatments for them and those with breakthrough infections.”

Reference: “ADAMTS13 regulation of VWF multimer distribution in severe COVID-19” by Soracha E. Ward, Helen Fogarty, Ellie Karampini, Michelle Lavin, Sonja Schneppenheim, Rita Dittmer, Hannah Morrin, Siobhan Glavey, Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, Colm Bergin, Ignacio Martin-Loeches, Patrick W. Mallon, Gerard F. Curley, Ross I. Baker, Ulrich Budde, Jamie M. O’Sullivan, James S. O’Donnell, Irish COVID-19 Vasculopathy Study (iCVS) researchers, 30 May 2021, Journal of Thrombosis and Hemostasis.
DOI: 10.1111/jth.15409

This work was funded by the Irish COVID-19 Vasculopathy Study (ICVS) through the Health Research Board’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Prize, as well as a philanthropic grant from the 3M Foundation to the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences to support for COVID-19 research .