Professionals from the Costa del Sol Hospital lead a research project on biological risk factors of Covid 19

This work, which complements the creation of a prediction tool to understand the evolution and better treatment of this pathology in seriously ill patients, is co-led by researchers from the University of Malaga.

Professionals from the Costa del Sol Hospital lead, together with researchers from the University of Malaga, the research project 'Genetic factors related to the prognosis and complications of patients with Covid-19 admitted to the Costa del Sol Hospital', whose objective is to define the relationship between the viral load and the expression of a panel of up to 700 genes related to the immune and inflammatory response that the patient presents at the time of admission, with their clinical evolution.

This study aims to identify the expression of which genes of the patient at the time of admission may predispose them to severe symptoms, which would allow us to locate those with a higher risk in order to offer them, in advance, the most appropriate treatment to avoid their risk. admission to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) or death. This work has initial funding of 15,500 euros as a result of a donation during the first wave of the pandemic to the Costa del Sol Hospital of the Fuerte de Marbella Foundation for research projects, the results of which will be available at the beginning of this year 2021.

Participating in this study on behalf of the hospital's Research Unit are the head of the Unit and medical director, Ángeles Pérez-Aisa, and the Research coordinator and also professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Málaga (UMA), Maximino Round; the basic researcher, Marilina García-Aranda and the methodologist of the Research unit, Francisco Rivas-Ruiz. The hospital's multidisciplinary team of collaborating researchers also includes the coordinator of the Programmed Care Laboratory, Gonzalo Callejón; the physician specializing in Internal Medicine, Raúl Quirós; the director of the Clinical Laboratories area, María Luisa Hortas; the medical specialist in Microbiology, Inmaculada López; and the doctor specializing in Preventive Medicine, María Ángeles Onieva. In addition, the coordinator of the Malaga Provincial Node of the Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia, Tatiana Díaz; and the researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Breast Cancer at the UMA, Martina Álvarez and Isabel Barragán.