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. 2021 Jan:137:155323.
doi: 10.1016/j.cyto.2020.155323. Epub 2020 Sep 30.

Cytokine profile and disease severity in patients with COVID-19

Ali Ghazavi  1 , Ali Ganji  2 , Nafiseh Keshavarzian  3 , Somayeh Rabiemajd  3 , Ghasem Mosayebi  4
Affiliations

Cytokine profile and disease severity in patients with COVID-19

Ali Ghazavi et al. Cytokine. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Cytokine dysregulation is the proposed mechanism for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-5, IL-8, Il-9, IL-17, TGF-β and IFN-γ in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The study was conducted between 63 adult patients with COVID-19 and compared with 33 age and gender-matched healthy subjects as controls. The age range in both groups was 50-70 years. The patients were classified into mild group (33 patients) and severe group (30 patients). Serum samples were collected from all participants and tested for the cytokine levels by ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method. Statistical analysis was performed using the one-way ANOVA. The mean serum levels of IFN-γ, TGF-β, IL-17 and IL-8 in the COVID-19 patients were significantly higher than those observed in the control group. A comparison of between the mild and severe groups showed significant differences in TGF-β levels. The mean concentration of serum IL-5 and IL-9 in patients with COVID-19 did not differ from those in the control group. Systemic IL-17 levels correlated positively and significantly with TGF-β in patients with COVID-19. Th1 (IFN-γ), Treg (TGF-β), and Th17 (IL-17) cytokines concentration were increased in COVID-19 patients. Interferon-γ and IL-17 are involved in inducing and mediating proinflammatory responses. Our data suggest that TGF-β can be used as a predictive factor of disease severity in patients with COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cytokines; Disease severity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean cytokine level changes in serum of different groups. Comparison of cytokines serum concentration of severe and mild groups with healthy controls. The data are given as mean (standard error of the mean). * p < 0.05.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
ROC curves of TGF-β and IL-8 to predict the severe COVID‐19.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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