The rate of seroconversion 15 days after documented SARS-COV2 on RT-PCR was therefore significantly lower in cancer patients versus HCWs (30% versus 71%, P ¼ 0.04). Importantly, six of the seven serodiagnostic-negative cancer patients had received cytotoxic therapy or major surgical intervention in the previous 4 weeks, compared with none of the five remaining patients (P ¼ 0.003). None of these patients died.In this series, 5 of 85 (5.9%) and 13 of 244 (5.4%) cancer patients and HCWs, respectively, had detectable Ab against COVID-19. However, cancer patients had a significantly lower detection rate of SARS-COV2 Ab 15 days or later after symptoms and RT-PCRþ testing. Anti-SARS-COV2 Ab were more often undetectable in patients receiving cancer treatments in the month before testing. Additional studies will be needed to confirm whether immune response to the virus is influenced by recent cancer treatments.

Highlights Fever was associated with poor outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Leukocytosis was associated with severe disease. Leukopenia was associated with a better prognosis. CRP was associated with poor prognosis. Leuocytosis and CRP on arrival may predict severe COVID-19.

BackgroundPsoriasis is an immune-mediated, inflammatory disorder of the skin characterized by chronic inflammation and hyperproliferation of the epidermis. Differential expression analysis of microarray or RNA-seq data have shown that thousands of coding and non-coding genes are differentially expressed between psoriatic and healthy control skin. However, differential expression analysis may fail to detect perturbations in gene coexpression networks. Sensitive detection of such networks may provide additional insight into important disease-associated pathways. In this study, we applied weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) on RNA-seq data from psoriasis patients and healthy controls.ResultsRNA-seq was performed on skin samples from 18 psoriasis patients (pre-treatment and post-treatment with the TNF-α inhibitor adalimumab) and 16 healthy controls, generating an average of 52.3 million 100-bp paired-end reads per sample. Using WGCNA, we identified 3 network modules that were significantly correlated with psoriasis and 6 network modules significantly correlated with biologic treatment, with only 16 % of the psoriasis-associated and 5 % of the treatment-associated coexpressed genes being identified by differential expression analysis. In a majority of these correlated modules, more than 50 % of coexpressed genes were long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA). Enrichment analysis of these correlated modules revealed that short-chain fatty acid metabolism and olfactory signaling are amongst the top pathways enriched for in modules associated with psoriasis, while regulation of leukocyte mediated cytotoxicity and regulation of cell killing are amongst the top pathways enriched for in modules associated with biologic treatment. A putative autoantigen, LL37, was coexpressed in the module most correlated with psoriasis.ConclusionsThis study has identified several networks of coding and non-coding genes associated with psoriasis and biologic drug treatment, including networks enriched for short-chain fatty acid metabolism and olfactory receptor activity, pathways that were not previously identified through differential expression analysis and may be dysregulated in psoriatic skin. As these networks are comprised mostly of non-coding genes, it is likely that non-coding genes play critical roles in the regulation of pathways involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3188-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.