Serum levels of type I interferon (IFN-I) is associated with the severity of COVID-19

作者：Yuting Sun, Gang Wang, Rongshuai Wang, Liang Ren, Zilin Yuan, Yueping Liu, Yuzhang Wu, Rong Chen, Yongwen Chen, Bo Diao · 发表于：Journal of Medical Microbiology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1099/jmm.0.001694 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies、SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research、Long-Term Effects of COVID-19

Introduction. Caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has threatened global public health. Immune damage mechanisms are essential guidelines for clinical treatment and immune prevention. Hypothesis. The dysregulated type I interferon (IFN-I) responses, lymphocytopenia and hypercytokinemia during SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported. However, whether there is a correlation between levels of IFN-I and the severity of COVID-19 has not been reported yet. Aim. To investigate the source of IFN-I and detect the exact roles of them in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Methodology. Here ELISA was used to detect serum IFN-I (IFN-α and IFN-β) for 137 cases with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted into one hospital in Wuhan from December 2019 to March 2020, and the relationships between IFN-α/β concentrations and patients’ clinical parameters were conducted by statistical analysis. Results. Both IFN-α and IFN-β concentrations dramatically increased in COVID-19 patients, especially in old patients (>80 years) and severe cases. Statistical analysis demonstrated that serum IFN-α/β concentrations were negatively correlated with the counts of total CD3 + T , CD4 + and CD8 + T cells, especially in critically ill cases. Moreover, serum IFN-α levels were positively correlated to IL-6 and TNF-α. Finally, immunofluorescent double staining showed that IFN-α and IFN-β are major secretions from macrophages and dend...