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. 2022 May:153:155849.
doi: 10.1016/j.cyto.2022.155849. Epub 2022 Mar 4.

Expression analysis of IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts in COVID-19 patients

Mohammadarian Akbari  1 , Mehdi Akhavan-Bahabadi  2 , Navid Shafigh  3 , Afshin Taheriazam  4 , Bashdar Mahmud Hussen  5 , Arezou Sayad  6 , Mohadeseh Fathi  6 , Mohammad Taheri  7 , Soudeh Ghafouri-Fard  8 , Mohammad Fathi  9
Affiliations

Expression analysis of IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts in COVID-19 patients

Mohammadarian Akbari et al. Cytokine. 2022 May.

Abstract

As a member of JAK family of non-receptor tyrosine kinases, TYK2 has a crucial role in regulation of immune responses. This protein has a crucial role in constant expression of IFNAR1 on surface of cells and initiation of type I IFN signaling. In the current study, we measured expression of IFNAR1 and TYK2 levels in venous blood samples of COVID-19 patients and matched controls. TYK2 was significantly down-regulated in male patients compared with male controls (RME = 0.34, P value = 0.03). Though, levels of TYK2 were not different between female cases and female controls, or between ICU-admitted and non-ICU-admitted cases. Expression of IFNAR1 was not different either between COVID-19 cases and controls or between patients required ICU admission and non-ICU-admitted cases. However, none of these transcripts can properly diffrentiate COVID-19 cases from controls or separate patients based on disease severity. The current study proposes down-regulation of TYK2 as a molecular mechanism for incapacity of SARS-CoV-2 in induction of a competent IFN response.

Keywords: Biomarker; COVID-19; Expression; IFNAR1; TYK2.

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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
Expression of IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts among COVID-19 patients and healthy persons.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Expression of IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts among ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients and non-ICU-admitted cases.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Correlation between IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts among COVID-19 patients.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Correlation between IFNAR1 and TYK2 transcripts among healthy controls.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Correlation between expressions of IFNAR1 and TYK2 genes and clinical variables.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
ROC curves showing the diagnostic power of IFNAR1 and TYK2 in separation of COVID-19 cases from normal persons (A) and separation of patients required ICU admission from the other group of patients (B).
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
ROC curves showing the diagnostic power of IFNAR1 and TYK2 in separation of male COVID-19 patients from normal male persons.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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