Post-COVID-19 Patients Who Develop Lung Fibrotic-like Changes Have Lower Circulating Levels of IFN-ß but Higher Levels of IL-1α and TGF-ß.
Biomedicines
; 9(12)2021 Dec 17.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1581033
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
SARS-CoV-2 infection induces in some patients a condition called long-COVID-19, herein post-COVID-19 (PC), which persists for longer than the negative oral-pharyngeal swab. One of the complications of PC is pulmonary fibrosis. The purpose of this study was to identify blood biomarkers to predict PC patients undergoing pulmonary fibrosis. PATIENTS ANDMETHODS:
We analyzed blood samples of healthy, anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated (VAX) subjects and PC patients who were stratified according to the severity of the disease and chest computed tomography (CT) scan data.RESULTS:
The inflammatory C reactive protein (CRP), complement complex C5b-9, LDH, but not IL-6, were higher in PC patients, independent of the severity of the disease and lung fibrotic areas. Interestingly, PC patients with ground-glass opacities (as revealed by chest CT scan) were characterized by higher plasma levels of IL-1α, CXCL-10, TGF-ß, but not of IFN-ß, compared to healthy and VAX subjects. In particular, 19 out of 23 (82.6%) severe PC and 8 out of 29 (27.6%) moderate PC patients presented signs of lung fibrosis, associated to lower levels of IFN-ß, but higher IL-1α and TGF-ß.CONCLUSIONS:
We found that higher IL-1α and TGF-ß and lower plasma levels of IFN-ß could predict an increased relative risk (RR = 2.8) of lung fibrosis-like changes in PC patients.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
/
Vaccines
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Biomedicines9121931
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