IL-10/IL-6 ratio from nasal & oral swab samples, acts as an inflammatory indicator for COVID-19 patients infected with the delta variant

• Published in: Heliyon 2023-06, Vol.9 (6), p.e16985-e16985, Article e16985
• Main Authors: Biswas, Biswajit, Roy, Subhanita, Banerjee, Indranath, Jana, Subhasis, Bhattacharjee, Bornali, Chakraborty, Suman, Mondal, Arindam, Goswami, Ritobrata
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; Delta variant; IL-10; IL-6; Muc5AC; Nasal swab; Oral swab; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16985

Hyper-inflammatory immune response of SARS-CoV-2 is often characterized by the release of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines with an impact on the expression of numerous other interleukins (ILs). However, from oral and nasal swab samples the specific quantitative association of the different IL-markers with the disease progression and its relationship with the status of vaccination remains unclear. Patients’ combined oral and nasal swab samples were collected from both non-vaccinated and double-vaccinated individuals with high (Ct value  30) viral loads, along with uninfected donors. None of the patients were critically ill, or needed ICU support. The expression of different cytokines (IL6, IL10, IL1B, IFNG) and mucin (MUC5AC, MUC1) markers were assessed between different groups by qRT-PCR. The important cytokine markers differentiating between vaccinated and non-vaccinated patients were identified by PCA. IL6 expression was higher in non-vaccinated COVID-19 patients infected with delta-variant irrespective of their viral-load compared to uninfected individuals. However, in double-vaccinated patients, only in high viral-load patients (Ct value  30. IL1B, and IFNG expression remained unaltered in uninfected and infected individuals. However, MUC5AC expression was lower in non-vaccinated patients with Ct value