Interleukin-17A and 17F mRNAs expression patterns change in COVID-19 Patients
Interleukin-17A and 17F mRNAs expression patterns change in COVID-19 Patients
zeynab rahni,1,*Seyed Reza Mohebbi,2Seyed Masoud Hosseini,3Shabnam Kazemian,4Mahsa Saeedi Niasar,5Hamid Asadzadeh-Aghdaei,6
2. Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3. Department of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 4. Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 5. Department of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 6. Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction: The severe outbreak of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), induced by the acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), caused an exceptional public health crisis worldwide. Novel findings revealed that SARS-CoV-2-induced hyperinflammatory clinical condition contributes to disease complexity and fatality in COVID-19. Clinical studies in Covid-19 patients have shown that upregulation of cytokines and interferons in SARS-CoV2-induced pneumonia is associated with cytokine storm syndrome. Effective cytokines in cytokine storms include IL-6, IL-1𝛽, IL-10, TNF, GM-CSF, IP-10, IL-17, MCP-3. In the blood of severe cases of COVID-19, large numbers of CCR4+ / CCR6+ Th17 cells can have high proinflammatory effects that support the Th17 cytokine storm. The Th17-type cytokine storm, which is associated with a dramatic increase in the cytokines IL-17, TNF, and GM-CSF, may result in organ damage Usually seen in severe COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of cytokine IL-17A and IL-17F in the blood of COVID-19 patients compared to the healthy control group.
Methods: The total RNA was extracted from the blood of the 20 COVID-19 patients and 20 healthy control subjects. Participants in this study were 13 male and 7 female in the patient group and healthy control group were 12 male and 6 female. qRT-PCR was performed to quantify the expression profile of IL-17A and IL-17F in blood of patients and control groups using the SYBR Green approach.
Results: The relative expression levels of IL-17A and IL-17F significantly increased in COVID-19 patients compared to the normal group (fold change: 4.217 ± 0.4768 p < 0.0001, 5.267 ± 0.5122 p < 0.0001 respectively).
Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that the mean expression level of IL-17A and IL-17F genes are significantly increased in the infected patients with SARS-CoV-2 compared to the healthy group.