Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 29:15:2359-2368.
doi: 10.2147/IDR.S355395. eCollection 2022.

Procoagulant Microvesicles in COVID-19 Patients: Possible Modulators of Inflammation and Prothrombotic Tendency

Hassan A Hamali  1 , Muhammad Saboor  1   2 , Gasim Dobie  1 , Aymen M Madkhali  1 , Mohammad S Akhter  1 , Ali Hakamy  3 , Hesham M Al-Mekhlafi  2 , Denise E Jackson  4 , Yahya H Matari  5 , Abdullah A Mobarki  1
Affiliations

Procoagulant Microvesicles in COVID-19 Patients: Possible Modulators of Inflammation and Prothrombotic Tendency

Hassan A Hamali et al. Infect Drug Resist. .

Abstract

Background: The hypercoagulability and thrombotic tendency in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is multifactorial, driven mainly by inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction. Elevated levels of procoagulant microvesicles (MVs) and tissue factor-bearing microvesicles (TF-bearing MVs) have been observed in many diseases with thrombotic tendency. The current study aimed to measure the levels of procoagulant MVs and TF-bearing MVs in patients with COVID-19 and healthy controls and to correlate their levels with platelet counts, D-Dimer levels, and other proposed calculated inflammatory markers.

Materials and methods: Forty ICU-admitted patients with COVID-19 and 37 healthy controls were recruited in the study. Levels of procoagulant MVs and TF-bearing MVs in the plasma of the study population were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.

Results: COVID-19 patients had significantly elevated levels of procoagulant MVs and TF-bearing MVs as compared with healthy controls (P<0.001). Procoagulant MVs significantly correlated with TF-bearing MVs, D-dimer levels, and platelet count, but not with calculated inflammatory markers (neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, and platelet/neutrophil ratio).

Conclusion: Elevated levels of procoagulant MVs and TF-bearing MVs in patients with COVID-19 are suggested to be (i) early potential markers to predict the severity of COVID-19 (ii) a novel circulatory biomarker to evaluate the procoagulant activity and severity of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; D-dimer; NLR; PLR; PNR; microvesicles; procoagulant; tissue factor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have read the journal’s policy and declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Levels of microvesicles (A) and tissue factor-bearing microvesicles (B) in COVID-19 patient compared to healthy controls. (A) Levels of microvesicles in the plasma of the study cohort. (B) Levels of tissue factor-bearing microvesicles in the plasma of the study cohort. Individual data of patients (n=40) and controls (n=37) are shown with mean line. The statistical analysis between groups was performed using independent unpaired t-test between the two groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plot between microvesicles and (A) tissue factor-bearing microvesicles, (B) D-dimer levels and (C) platelet count.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Benvenuto D, Giovanetti M, Ciccozzi A, Spoto S, Angeletti S, Ciccozzi M. The 2019-new coronavirus epidemic: evidence for virus evolution. J Med Virol. 2020;92(4):455–459. doi:10.1002/jmv.25688 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):507–513. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30211-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Che Mohd Nassir CMN, Hashim S, Wong KK, et al. COVID-19 infection and circulating microparticles-reviewing evidence as microthrombogenic risk factor for cerebral small vessel disease. Mol Neurobiol. 2021;58(8):4188–4215. doi:10.1007/s12035-021-02457-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Akhter MS, Hamali HA, Mobarki AA, Rashid H, Oldenburg J, Biswas A. Sars-cov-2 infection: modulator of pulmonary embolism paradigm. J Clin Med. 2021;10(5):1–20. doi:10.3390/jcm10051064 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abid Hussein MN, Böing AN, Sturk A, Hau CM, Nieuwland R. Inhibition of microparticle release triggers endothelial cell apoptosis and detachment. Thromb Haemost. 2007;98(11):1096–1107. doi:10.1160/TH05-04-0231 - DOI - PubMed