Work

Evaluation of I-TAC as a potential early plasma marker to differentiate between critical and non-critical COVID-19

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant global health and economic consequences. There is an unmet need to define a molecular fingerprint of severity of the disease that may guide an early, rational and directed intervention preventing severe illness. We collected plasma from patients with moderate (nine cases), severe (22 cases) and critical (five cases) COVID-19 within three days of hospitalization (approximately one week after symptom onset) and used a cytokine antibody array to screen the 105 cytokines included in the array. We found that I-TAC, IP-10, ST2 and IL-1ra were significantly upregulated in patients with critical disease as compared to the non-critical (moderate and severe combined). ELISA further quantified I-TAC levels as 590.24±410.89, 645.35±517.59 and 1613.53±1010.59 pg/ml in moderate, severe and critical groups, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that I-TAC levels were significantly higher in patients with critical disease when compared with moderate (p = 0.04), severe (p = 0.03) or the combined non-critical (p = 0.02) group. Although limited by the low sample numbers, this study may suggest a role of I-TAC as a potential early marker to discriminate between critical and non-critical COVID-19 cases. Such knowledge is urgently needed for appropriate allocation of resources and to serve as a platform for future research towards early interventions that could mitigate disease severity and save lives.

Source: Cell Stress

DOI: 10.15698/cst2022.01.262

Authors: Yushan Zhang, Chao Xu, Nelson I. Agudelo Higuita, Resham Bhattacharya, Jennifer Holter Chakrabarty, Priyabrata Mukherjee

Institutions: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center

Language: English

Topic: COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,283