Levels of some serum cytokines and chemokines in children with coronavirus infection

ABSTRACT

Objective. To measure serum levels of some cytokines and chemokines in children depending on the severity of coronavirus infection. Patients and methods. We examined 33 children aged 4 to 17 years with coronavirus infection, including 25 patients with mild disease (Group 1;mean age 11 [6.5;14] years) and 8 children with moderate disease (Group 2;mean age 11 [8;13] years). The control group comprised 30 healthy children matched for age (mean age 10 [6;12] years). The following cytokines and chemokines were measured in all study participants using the LEGENDplexTM Human Essential Immune Response Panel (BioLegend, USA) interleukins (IL)-1β,-2,-4,-6,-8,-10,-12p70,-17A, interferon-induced protein (IP-10), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25.0 (International Business Machines Corporation, license No Z125-3301-14, USA). Results. We found that children with coronavirus infection had elevated serum levels of IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-12p70, IL-17A, IP-10, and MCP-1 regardless of their disease severity compared to controls. Patients with moderate disease demonstrated higher serum levels of IL-12p70 and MCP-1 compared to those with mild disease. The ROC-analysis showed that IL-12p70 and MCP-1 can predict moderate course of coronavirus infection in children. Conclusion. Serum levels of IL-12p70 and MCP-1 can be used as an additional diagnostic marker to estimate the inflammation severity in children with coronavirus infection.