ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The dynamics of essential metals such as Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn) may be associated with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has spread across the globe. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between serum levels of Cu and Zn, as well as the Cu:Zn ratio in the acute phase of COVID-19 along with the assessment of their connection to other laboratory parameters (hematological, biochemical, hemostatic). METHODS: Serum levels of Cu and Zn were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry in 75 patients in the acute COVID-19 phase and were compared with those of 22 COVID-19 patients evaluated three months after the acute phase of the disease ('non-acute' group) and with those of 68 healthy individuals. RESULTS: In comparison with both the non-acute patients and the healthy controls, the acute patients had lower levels of hemoglobulin and albumin, and higher levels of glucose, creatinine, liver transaminases, C-reactive protein (CRP), and higher values of the neutrophils to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) at the hospital admission. They also exhibited increased levels of Cu and decreased of Zn, well represented by the Cu:Zn ratio which was higher in the acute patients than in both non-acute patients (p = 0.001) and healthy controls (p < 0.001), with no statistical difference between the last two groups. The Cu:Zn ratio (log scale) positively correlated with CRP (log scale; r = 0.581, p < 0.001) and NLR (r = 0.436, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Current results demonstrate that abnormal dynamics of Cu and Zn levels in serum occur early during the course of COVID-19 disease, and are mainly associated with the inflammation response.
ABSTRACT
The pathogenesis of COVID-19 involves both humoral and cellular immunological responses, with cell-mediated immunity being discussed as the primary and most effective immune response to viral infection. It is supposed that COVID-19 vaccines also elicited effective cell immune response, and specifically IFNγ secreted by SARS-CoV-2-specific T-helper 1 and Tcytotoxic cells. Using an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) test, we aimed to monitor cellular post-vaccination immunity in healthy subjects vaccinated with BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty). We tested 37 healthcare workers (mean age 54.3 years, range 28-72, 22 females, 15 males) following COVID-19 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and 15 healthy unvaccinated native persons as control subjects using QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 RUO test, performed approximately 1 month after vaccination. We also measured virus-neutralizing antibodies. Thirty-one out of 37 tested subjects had significantly raised levels of SARS-CoV-2 specific IFNγ against SARS-CoV-2 Ag1 and Ag2 1 month following COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, we found a significant difference between the IFNγ levels in fully vaccinated subjects and the control group (p < 0.01).We also found a substantial correlation (r = 0.9; p < 0.01) between virus-neutralizing antibodies titers and IFNγ concentrations released by T cells. We believe that IGRA tests are an excellent tool to assess the development of a post-vaccination immune response when immunized against SARS-CoV-2. However, IGRA-based tests should be performed within a few weeks following vaccination. Therefore, we can speculate that the application of these tests to assess long-term immune response is debatable.