A Molecular Communications System for the Detection of Inflammatory Levels Related to COVID-19 Disease.

ABSTRACT

A recent and extensive research activity highlighted the process behind the attack and spread of COVID-19 in the human body. What emerged is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus makes use of both the ACE2 receptor, expressed by pneumocytes in the ephitelial alveolar lining, and by the endothelium to spread the disease and to replicate itself. Since the endothelium is an extended tissue lying in the circulatory system, this may lead to a large state of diffuse endothelial inflammation with serious clinical consequences. This situation may be further compromised by the immune system, that may generate pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6) as a consequence of the infection. In this paper we propose and analyze a molecular communication system, designed for the detection of excessive IL-6 level, that allows monitoring its evolution in the blood vessels. The proposed analysis was performed by using the BiNS2 simulator, which is suitable for the numerical analysis of flow-based molecular communications in blood vessels, as well as Markov models of the endothelium.