Could COVID-19 ‘Inflammatory Signature’ Predict Disease Course?
A laboratory study that took serum samples of nearly 1,500 COVID-19 patients at hospital admission found that interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels predicted both COVID-19 severity and death, after adjusting for other laboratory inflammation markers, as well as hypoxia and disease severity, reported Sacha Gnjatic, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues.
These patients were followed for up to 41 days after admission, and the authors validated their results in a smaller cohort of 231 patients, and published their findings in Nature Medicine.
They specifically noted that COVID-19-related cytokine response was different from the traditional cytokine storm tied to sepsis and in cancer patients treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, with “sustained elevated cytokine levels over days and weeks, and relative absence of coordination between cytokines.”
Thus, they proposed that serum IL-6 and TNF-α “should be considered in the management and treatment of patients with COVID-19 to stratify prospective clinical trials, guide resource allocation and inform therapeutic options.”
