Impact of Innate Immunity, Endothelial Damage, and Metabolic Biomarkers on COVID-19 Severity and Mortality

Joseph M Rocco; Paola Laghetti; Mariantonietta Di Stefano; Irini Sereti; Ana Ortega-Villa; Jing Wang; Adam Rupert; Maria Chironna; Lara Ye; Xiangdong Liu; Megan V Anderson; Peter B Burbelo; Jose Ramon Fiore; Annalisa Saracino; Andrea Lisco

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac427

Impact of Innate Immunity, Endothelial Damage, and Metabolic Biomarkers on COVID-19 Severity and Mortality

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Aug 20;9(9):ofac427. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac427. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
² Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Consorziale Policlinico di Bari, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
³ Section of Pharmacology, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
⁴ Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
⁵ Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland, USA.
⁶ Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick, Maryland, USA.
⁷ Hygiene Section, Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
⁸ National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

In this study, abnormal levels of myeloid activation, endothelial damage, and innate immune markers were associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), while higher levels of metabolic biomarkers (irisin, leptin) demonstrated a protective effect. These data support a model for COVID-19 immunopathogenesis linking robust inflammation and endothelial damage in metabolically predisposed individuals.

Keywords: COVID-19; endothelial damage; inflammation; metabolic biomarkers.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America 2022.