Circulating Type I Interferon Levels and COVID-19 Severity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Front Immunol
; 12: 657363, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1247860
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections, resulting in a range of clinical manifestations and outcomes. Laboratory and immunological alterations have been considered as potential markers of disease severity and clinical evolution. Type I interferons (IFN-I), mainly represented by IFN-α and ß, are a group of cytokines with an important function in antiviral responses and have played a complex role in COVID-19. Some studies have demonstrated that IFN-I levels and interferon response is elevated in mild cases, while other studies have noted this in severe cases. The involvement of IFN-I on the pathogenesis and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unclear. In this study, we summarize the available evidence of the association of plasma protein levels of type I IFN with the severity of COVID-19.Methods:
The PRISMA checklist guided the reporting of the data. A systematic search of the MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and Web of Science databases was performed up to March of 2021, looking for articles that evaluated plasma protein levels of IFN-I in mild, severe, or critical COVID-19 patients. Comparative meta-analyses with random effects were performed to compare the standardized mean differences in plasma protein levels of IFN-I of mild versus severe and mild versus critical patients. Meta-regressions were performed to test the moderating role of age, sex, time that the IFN-I was measured, and limit of detection of the assay used in the difference between the means.Results:
There was no significant difference in plasma levels of IFN-α when comparing between mild and severe patients (SMD = -0.236, 95% CI -0.645 to 0.173, p = 0.258, I2 = 82.11), nor when comparing between patients mild and critical (SMD = 0.203, 95% CI -0.363 to 0.770, p = 0.481, I2 = 64.06). However, there was a significant difference between healthy individuals and patients with mild disease (SMD = 0.447, 95% CI 0.085 to 0.810, p = 0.016, I2 = 62.89).Conclusions:
Peripheral IFN-α cannot be used as a severity marker as it does not determine the clinical status presented by COVID-19 patients.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Biomarkers
/
Interferon Type I
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
/
Reviews
/
Systematic review/Meta Analysis
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Immunol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Fimmu.2021.657363
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