Over 15% of patients in intensive care with the flu or Covid-19 develop aspergillosis, a fungal infection in the lungs. Now, a study by researchers at UZ Leuven and KU Leuven has identified impairments in the immune response that make patients more susceptible the infection.
Hundreds of thousands of people end up in intensive care with the flu or Covid-19 every year. Some 15% develop an additional lung infection with the common fungus Aspergillus. In healthy people, the fungus almost never results in disease but for critically ill patients who already have an underlying infection, aspergillosis can be fatal, causing irreparable damage to the tissue of the airways and lungs and doubling the risk of death.
To better understand why patients with severe flu or Covid-19 develop fungal infections, UZ Leuven and KU Leuven researchers studied 169 patients, taking long-term samples from Leuven's biobank. The study was published in the scientific journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Related News
- Covid-19 was most common cause of death in 2020 in Flanders
- Fewer than 80 Covid-19 patients hospitalised ever day
"We found that the innate immune system was affected in several areas in patients with severe flu or Covid-19 who developed this fungal infection," explained intensivist Joost Wauters (UZ Leuven). "The white blood cells that normally have to clear the fungal threads were found not to function properly. Similar immune failures play a role in part in Covid-19 and flu."
New medical developments
The researchers found that Covid-19 and the flu affect the epithelium of the lungs, which is the outer layer of cells that line airways and the lung tissue and form the first barrier against infection. In Covid-19 cases, the study showed that in the areas where the virus attacks the epithelium, the fungus penetrates the tissue.
Thanks to the findings, future research can focus on developing biomarkers that can help predict which patients are more susceptible to fungal infection and are in need of extra monitoring.
