Differential Inflammatory and Immune Response to Viral Infection in the Upper-Airway and Peripheral Blood of Mild COVID-19 Cases

COVID-19 is characterised by a wide variety of clinical manifestations, and clinical tests and genetic analysis might help to predict patient outcomes. In the current study, the expression of genes related to immune response ( , , , , , and ) was analysed in the upper airway and paired-blood samples...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personalized medicine 2024-11, Vol.14 (11), p.1099
Main Authors: Gajate-Arenas, Malena, García-Pérez, Omar, Domínguez-De-Barros, Angélica, Sirvent-Blanco, Candela, Dorta-Guerra, Roberto, García-Ramos, Alma, Piñero, José E, Lorenzo-Morales, Jacob, Córdoba-Lanús, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Cell migration
COVID-19
Cytokines
Disease transmission
Epidemics
Gene expression
Genes
Genetic analysis
IL-1β
Immune response
Infections
Interferon
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Middle East respiratory syndrome
Mutation
Pathogenesis
Patients
Peripheral blood
Respiratory tract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Sex differences
Transforming growth factor-b1
Viral infections
Viruses
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Summary:COVID-19 is characterised by a wide variety of clinical manifestations, and clinical tests and genetic analysis might help to predict patient outcomes. In the current study, the expression of genes related to immune response ( , , , , , and ) was analysed in the upper airway and paired-blood samples from 25 subjects infected with SARS-CoV-2. Relative gene expression was determined by RT-qPCR. expression was higher in the blood than in the upper airway ( < 0.001). In addition, a negative correlation was found between and viral load ( = 0.033) in the upper airway, suggesting that the expression inhibits the viral infection. Concerning sex, women expressed and in a higher proportion than men at a systemic level ( = 0.008 and = 0.049, respectively). However, an increased expression of was found in men compared to women in the upper airway ( = 0.046), which could be due to the protective effect of , especially in men. The higher expression of in blood might be due to the key role of this gene in the migration and recruitment of immune cells from the systemic circulation to the lungs. Our findings confirm the existence of sex differences in the immune response to early stages of the infection. Further studies in a larger cohort are necessary to corroborate the current findings.
ISSN:2075-4426
2075-4426
DOI:10.3390/jpm14111099