Aberrant cytokine expression in COVID-19 patients: Associations between cytokines and disease severity

Abstract

Cytokines play pleiotropic, antagonistic, and collaborative in viral disease. The high morbidity and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) make it a significant threat to global public health. Elucidating its pathogenesis is essential to finding effective therapy. A retrospective study was conducted on 71 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Data on cytokines, T lymphocytes, and other clinical and laboratory characteristics were collected from patients with variable disease severity. The effects of cytokines on the overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) of patients were analyzed. The critically severe and severe patients had higher infection indexes and significant multiple organ function abnormalities than the mild patients ( P <0.05). IL-6 and IL-10 were significantly higher in the critically severe patients than in the severe and mild patients ( P <0.05). IL-6 and IL-10 were closely associated with white blood cells, neutrophils, T lymphocyte subsets, D-D dimer, blood urea nitrogen, complement C1q, procalcitonin C-reactive protein. Moreover, the IL-6 and IL-10 levels were closely correlated to dyspnea and dizziness ( P <0.05). The patients with higher IL-10 levels had shorter OS than the group with lower levels ( P <0.05). The older patients with higher levels of single IL-6 or IL-10 tended to have shorter EFS ( P <0.05), while the patients who had more elevated IL-6 and IL-10 had shorter OS ( P <0.05). The Cox proportional hazard model revealed that IL-6 was the independent factor affecting EFS. IL-6 and IL-10 play crucial roles in COVID-19 prognosis.

Routine laboratory parameters, including complete blood count, predict COVID-19 in-hospital mortality in geriatric patients

“…Previous reports analyzed the routine laboratory biomarkers at hospital admission for COVID-19, suggesting that the most severe forms of COVID-19 were associated with peripheral lymphocyte and neutrophil subsets alteration ( Al Balushi et al, 2021 , Cai et al, 2021b , Lu et al, 2021 , Reusch et al, 2021 , Wang et al, 2020 ). Similarly, a wide range of metabolic parameters and biomarkers of damage, inflammatory responses, and coagulation system activation have been associated with COVID-19 poor outcomes ( Charoenngam et al, 2021 , Heer et al, 2021 , Khamis et al, 2021 , Kitakata et al, 2021 , Lv et al, 2020 , Manocha et al, 2021 , Nurlu et al, 2021 , Tang et al, 2021 )…”

Hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-BCD) inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication and virus-induced inflammatory cytokines

“…In addition, several other cell types such as endothelial cells, hepatocytes and monocytes have been reported to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and infection of these cells may contribute to tissue lesions and/or inflammation ( Hoffmann et al, 2020 ; Hikmet et al, 2020 ; Pontelli et al, 2020 ). Increased cytokine levels, including IL-6, IL10, and TNF-α, are positively correlated with disease severity ( Tang et al, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2021 ). Indeed, several lines of evidence suggest that hyperinflammation may be triggered by virus intracellular sensing pathways in cellular targets, and by activation of infiltrated monocytic and polymorphonuclear cells ( Pantazi et al, 2021 ; Melms et al, 2021 ; Ackermann et al, 2021 ).…”

Serum C1q Levels Have Prognostic Value for Sepsis and are Related to the Severity of Sepsis and Organ Damage

“… 27 It has also been reported that the serum C1q level of COVID-19 patients has been reduced, which also further suggests that viral infection plays an important role in the classical complement activation pathway. 28 Our results showed that C1q levels were not significantly related to septic shock. However, previous studies have reported that other complement components are related to the occurrence of shock.…”