Inflammatory mediators profile in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: A comparative study

Abstract

Abnormal inflammatory mediator concentrations during SARS-CoV-2 infection may represent disease severity. We aimed to assess plasma inflammatory mediator concentrations in patients with SARS-CoV-2 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In this study, 260 adults: 126 hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 sorted into severity groups: severe (n=68) and mild or moderate (n=58), and 134 healthy controls were enrolled. We quantified 39 plasma inflammatory mediators using multiplex ELISA. Spearman rank correlation and Mann-Whitney U test were used to identify mechanistically coupled inflammatory mediators and compare disease severity. Compared to healthy controls, patients with COVID-19 had significantly higher levels of interleukins 1α, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 15, C-reactive protein (CRP), serum amyloid A (SAA), intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion protein 1 (VCAM-1), IFN-γ-inducible protein-10 (IP-10, CXCL10), macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1α, CCL3), eotaxin-3 (CCL26), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), placental growth factor (PlGF), and fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (Flt-1). Patients with severe COVID-19 had higher IL-10 and lower macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC, CCL22) compared to the mild or moderate group (P<0.05). In the receiver operating characteristic curve, SAA, IL-6 and CRP showed strong sensitivity and specificity in predicting the severity and prognosis of COVID-19. Greater age and higher CRP had a significant association with disease severity (P<0.05). Our findings reveal that CRP, SAA, VCAM-1, CXCL10, CCL22 and IL-10 levels are promising biomarkers for COVID-19 disease severity, suggesting that plasma inflammatory mediators could be used as warning indicators of COVID-19 severity, aid in COVID-19 prognosis and treatment.

Biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction are associated with poor outcome in COVID‐19 patients: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…In terms of soluble FLT‐1, we included 6 studies 13,48,66,68–70 with 190 patients in poor outcome group and 471 patients in good outcome group. The meta‐analysis derived a pooled standard mean difference of 1.93 (0.65, 3.21) ( p = 0.003).…”

“…In total, we analysed the results of VEGF serum levels in 466 patients (227 with poor outcome and 239 with good outcome) from 6 studies. 9,45,48,51,66,67 The meta-analysis derived a pooled standard mean difference of 0.27 (0.02, 0.53) (p = 0.03) which indicates increasing levels of VEGF in patients suffering a critical form of COVID-19. The heterogeneity among these studies was moderate (I 2 = 35%, p = 0.17) (Figure 4, panel A).…”

“…Both VEGF and sFLT-1 have previously shown to be associated with sepsis progression, severity and mortality as well as organ dysfunction in these patients. 1,12 Several studies have investigated possible role of these markers in COVID-19 patients and whether they can be used as predictors of severity and mortality of COVID-19 9,13,[66][67][68] . Pine et al…”

Integrated bioinformatics to identify potential key biomarkers for COVID-19-related chronic urticaria

“…According to the research, TNF and CCL3 could mediate the inhibition of human intestinal mast cell activation by resveratrol ( 42 ). Additionally, CCL3 and TNF were found to increase in critically ill patients with COVID-19 and related to increased morbidity and mortality ( 43 ). Moreover, the researchers found that FCGR3A is mainly expressed on immune cells (like NK cells) and also correlated with the severity of COVID-19 ( 44 ).…”

Lung Ultrasound Findings and Endothelial Perturbation in a COVID-19 Low-Intensity Care Unit

“…VCAM-1 is another biomarker of endothelial perturbation; in particular, it is a glycoprotein expressed at the endothelial cell surface level whose expression is increased by pro-inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, high glucose concentration, toll-like receptor agonists and shear stress [32]. High plasma levels have been observed in COVID-19 patients and are associated with disease progression and mortality [33][34][35][36].…”