Examination of serum cytokine and chemokine levels of COVID 19 patients at the time of admission

Onjective:It has been shown in many studies that COVID-19 disease is an inflammatory process. Cytokine storm that occurs in patients is one of the most important antites that determine the effective mortality in physiopathology. Our aim is to investigate the correlation of serum cytokine and chemokine levels with the severity of the disease. Patients and methods: 78 COVID-19 patients were included in the study. The patients were classified as 46 severe and 32 mild according to clinical, laboratory and radiological findings at the time of admission to the emergency department. Serum cytokine and chemokine levels were determined using the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine Screening Panel (Bio-rad, Hercules, CA, USA). Results: 78 COVID-19 patients, including 54 men and 24 women, were included in the study. The mean age was 43.1 ± 13.3 years for mild disease and 58.2 ± 15 years for severe disease. Leukocyte count (P=0.002), neutrophil count (p=0.001), increased ALT (p=0.030), AST (P=0.002), LDH (p<0.001), urea (p<0.013), ferritin (p<0.001), D-dimer (p=0.042), CRP (p<0.001) levels increased in severe disease. However, lymphopenia (p<0.001) and thrombocytopenia (p=0.042) were associated with disease severity. Although serum IL-13, TNF-α, IFN-γ, MIP-1β, and MCP-1 levels were found to be higher in severe disease than in mild disease, they were not statistically significant. Conclusion: COVID-19 disease causes morbidity and mortality triggered by infection-related hyperinflammation. There was no correlation between the cytokine and chemokine levels included in this study and the severity of the disease. However, in the literature, especially IL-6 and IL-8 levels and disease severity have been associated. Detection of serume cytokine and chemokine levels may provide alternative approaches for immunomodulation of severe cases of COVID-19.