Circulating extracellular vesicles may contribute to promote disease severity in COVID19 patients. This is the main result of a research carried out at Cardiocentro Ticino Institute-EOC, aiming to study the role of blood-derived nanoparticle in patients with confirmed infection caused by novel coronavirus 2019.

Taking advantage from local synergy of different entities (EOLAB, COVID units care at EOC/CCT and basic research laboratory at Cardiocentro Institute) the group led by PD Dr. Lucio Barile showed that the blood of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is particularly rich in nanoparticle of inflammatory origin. These ultra-small vesicles can contribute to triggering abnormal coagulation processes as they express a specific protein, so called “tissue factor”, known to be a clotting activator. It might contribute to aggravate the patients’ prognosis. The research has been published on EBioMedicine – The Lancet (10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103369)

If confirmed on a larger cohort of patients, the study opens up the scenario of being able to obtain important indications for predicting the severity of the disease in COVID-19 patients from a minimally invasive blood sample at the time of swab-test.