Circulating inflammatory cytokines predict severity disease in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a prospective multicenter study of the European DRAGON consortium
[en] Background: COVID-19 has put a huge strain on the healthcare systems worldwide, requiring unprecedented intensive care resources. There is still an unmet clinical need for easily available biomarkers capable of predicting the risk for severe disease. The main goal of this prospective multicenter study was to identify biomarkers that could predict ICU admission and in-hospital mortality.
Methods: We prospectively recruited COVID-19 PCR positive patients in two hospitals, in Belgium and Italy. Blood samples were collected at hospital admission and 20 potential biomarkers were measured with the Luminex technology. Logistic regression models were performed to identify the biomarkers that, alone or together, were associated with patient disease severity.
Results: Our study demonstrates that elevated levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines were associated with disease severity in COVID-19 hospitalized patients. CXCL10, IL-4, IL-6 and MCP-1 values were predictive of ICU admission. Elevated levels of IL-6 and MCP-1 were also associated with in hospital death in COVID-19 hospitalized patients.
Conclusion: Altogether, elevated and correlated inflammatory cytokines in the blood of COVID-19 patients at hospital admission are predictive of disease severity and suggest a dysregulated inflammation induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Disciplines :
Cardiovascular & respiratory systems
Author, co-author :
Polese, Barbara ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences biomédicales et précliniques
Ernst, Marie ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > > Service des informations médico économiques (SIME)
Henket, Monique ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > > Service de pneumologie - allergologie
Winandy, Marie-Laurence ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > > Service de toxicologie clinique, médicolégale, environnementale et en entreprise
Circulating inflammatory cytokines predict severity disease in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a prospective multicenter study of the European DRAGON consortium
Fonds Léon Fredericq EFPIA - European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations
Funding number :
101005122; The DRAGON project has received funding from the InnovativeMedicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreementNo 101005122. The JU receives support from the European Union’sHorizon 2020 research and innovation program and EFPIA. Thispublication reflects the author’s view. Neither IMI nor the EuropeanUnion, EFPIA or the DRAGON consortium, are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. This workwas also supported by a Leon Fredericq Foundation grant.
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