Circulating Calprotectin as a Predictive and Severity Biomarker in Patients with COVID-19

Gary L Norman; Sherwin A Navaz; Yogendra Kanthi; Roger Albesa; Michael Mahler; Jason S Knight; Yu Zuo

doi:10.3390/diagnostics12061324

Circulating Calprotectin as a Predictive and Severity Biomarker in Patients with COVID-19

Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 May 27;12(6):1324. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12061324.

Authors

Gary L Norman¹, Sherwin A Navaz², Yogendra Kanthi³, Roger Albesa¹, Michael Mahler¹, Jason S Knight², Yu Zuo²

Affiliations

¹ Headquarters & Technology Center Autoimmunity, Werfen, San Diego, CA 92131, USA.
² Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
³ Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

Abstract

Background: New tools for the assessment and prediction of the severity of hospitalized COVID-19 patients can help direct limited resources to patients with the greatest need. Circulating levels of calprotectin (S100A8/S100A9) reflect inflammatory activity in multiple conditions, and have been described as being elevated in COVID-19 patients, but their measurement is not routinely utilized. The aim of our study was to assess the practical and predictive value of measuring circulating calprotectin levels in patients at admission and during their hospitalization.

Methods: Circulating calprotectin levels were measured in 157 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 using an automated quantitative chemiluminescent assay.

Results: Circulating calprotectin levels were strongly correlated with changing respiratory supplementation needs of patients. The overall trajectory of circulating calprotectin levels generally correlated with patient improvement or deterioration.

Conclusions: Routine measurement of circulating calprotectin levels may offer a valuable tool to assess and monitor hospitalized patients with COVID-19, as well as other acute inflammatory conditions.

Keywords: COVID-19; S100A8/S100A9; SARS-CoV-2; biomarker; calprotectin; chemiluminescent immunoassay; predictive; serum; severity.

Grants and funding

Y.Z. was supported by a career development grant from the Rheumatology Research Foundation and a grant from the Arthritis National Research Foundation. J.S.K. was supported by grants from the NIH (R01HL115138), Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Rheumatology Research Foundation, and Lupus Research Alliance. Y.K. was supported by the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, the Intramural Research Program of the NIH and NHLBI, and the Lasker Foundation. Calprotectin reagents were supplied by Werfen.