TY - JOUR
T1 - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients Have Increased Levels of Plasma Inflammatory Mediators Reported Upregulated in Severe COVID-19
AU - Acevedo, Nathalie
AU - Escamilla-Gil, Jose Miguel
AU - Espinoza, Héctor
AU - Regino, Ronald
AU - Ramírez, Jonathan
AU - Florez de Arco, Lucila
AU - Dennis, Rodolfo
AU - Torres-Duque, Carlos A.
AU - Caraballo, Luis
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financed by the Ministry of Science (Republic of Colombia, Grant 756-2017) and the University of Cartagena. The funders have not role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Funding Information:
We thank Mileidis Avila, Ana Carolina Mercado, Ivan Acevedo Monterrosa, Tania Cepeda and Patricia Parada for their technical support during patient recruitment and sample processing. To Dina Ortiz for her skillful assistance with the pulmonary function tests and to all the patients and healthy participants that voluntarily contributed to this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Acevedo, Escamilla-Gil, Espinoza, Regino, Ramírez, Florez de Arco, Dennis, Torres-Duque and Caraballo.
PY - 2021/7/15
Y1 - 2021/7/15
N2 - Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19, but the mechanisms are unclear. Besides, patients with severe COVID-19 have been reported to have increased levels of several immune mediators. Methods: Ninety-two proteins were quantified in 315 plasma samples from 118 asthmatics, 99 COPD patients and 98 healthy controls (age 40-90 years), who were recruited in Colombia before the COVID-19 pandemic. Protein levels were compared between each disease group and healthy controls. Significant proteins were compared to the gene signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection reported in the “COVID-19 Drug and Gene Set Library” and with experimentally tested protein biomarkers of severe COVID-19. Results: Forty-one plasma proteins showed differences between patients and controls. Asthmatic patients have increased levels in IL-6 while COPD patients have a broader systemic inflammatory dysregulation driven by HGF, OPG, and several chemokines (CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, CX3CL1, CXCL1, MCP-3, MCP-4, CCL3, CCL4 and CCL11). These proteins are involved in chemokine signaling pathways related with response to viral infections and some, were found up-regulated upon SARS-CoV-2 experimental infection of Calu-3 cells as reported in the COVID-19 Related Gene Sets database. An increase of HPG, CXCL9, CXCL10, IL-6, MCP-3, TNF and EN-RAGE has also been experimentally detected in patients with severe COVID-19. Conclusions: COPD patients have altered levels of plasma proteins that have been reported increased in patients with severe COVID-19. Our study suggests that COPD patients have a systemic dysregulation in chemokine networks (including HGF and CXCL9) that could make them more susceptible to severe COVID-19. Also, that IL-6 levels are increased in some asthmatic patients (especially in females) and this may influence their response to COVID-19. The findings in this study depict a novel panel of inflammatory plasma proteins in COPD patients that may potentially associate with increased susceptibility to severe COVID-19 and might be useful as a biomarker signature after future experimental validation.
AB - Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19, but the mechanisms are unclear. Besides, patients with severe COVID-19 have been reported to have increased levels of several immune mediators. Methods: Ninety-two proteins were quantified in 315 plasma samples from 118 asthmatics, 99 COPD patients and 98 healthy controls (age 40-90 years), who were recruited in Colombia before the COVID-19 pandemic. Protein levels were compared between each disease group and healthy controls. Significant proteins were compared to the gene signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection reported in the “COVID-19 Drug and Gene Set Library” and with experimentally tested protein biomarkers of severe COVID-19. Results: Forty-one plasma proteins showed differences between patients and controls. Asthmatic patients have increased levels in IL-6 while COPD patients have a broader systemic inflammatory dysregulation driven by HGF, OPG, and several chemokines (CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, CX3CL1, CXCL1, MCP-3, MCP-4, CCL3, CCL4 and CCL11). These proteins are involved in chemokine signaling pathways related with response to viral infections and some, were found up-regulated upon SARS-CoV-2 experimental infection of Calu-3 cells as reported in the COVID-19 Related Gene Sets database. An increase of HPG, CXCL9, CXCL10, IL-6, MCP-3, TNF and EN-RAGE has also been experimentally detected in patients with severe COVID-19. Conclusions: COPD patients have altered levels of plasma proteins that have been reported increased in patients with severe COVID-19. Our study suggests that COPD patients have a systemic dysregulation in chemokine networks (including HGF and CXCL9) that could make them more susceptible to severe COVID-19. Also, that IL-6 levels are increased in some asthmatic patients (especially in females) and this may influence their response to COVID-19. The findings in this study depict a novel panel of inflammatory plasma proteins in COPD patients that may potentially associate with increased susceptibility to severe COVID-19 and might be useful as a biomarker signature after future experimental validation.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85111589138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fimmu.2021.678661
DO - 10.3389/fimmu.2021.678661
M3 - Article
C2 - 34335580
AN - SCOPUS:85111589138
SN - 1664-3224
VL - 12
JO - Frontiers in Immunology
JF - Frontiers in Immunology
M1 - 678661
ER -
