Gene expression of TNF-α among Iraqi COVID-19 patients with a different severity status

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) individuals with varied severity group are affected by the cytokine storm brought on by SARS-CoV2 infection, which is a significant cause of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Objective: The goal of the current study was to examine tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) gene expression in COVID-19 at various severity levels. Materials and Methods: The study includes 140 divided into 105 COVID-19-positive patients (35 for each mild, moderate, and severe group) and 35 COVID-19-negative healthy people as control. COVID-19 positive patients had 46 males and 59 females, while COVID-19-negative healthy people included 16 males and 19 females. The separation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was achieved using Ficoll, and then Ribonucleic acid was extracted and converted to cDNA and the gene expression using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase as the housekeeping gene. Results: The results revealed non-significant differences at P < 0.05 in age among different COVID-19 groups and control (F-ratio value is 0.54257 and P-value is 0.65397). The results revealed over-expression of TNF-α gene among COVID-19 patients and the relative quantification (fold change) (mean ± standard deviation) values were 6.542 ± 7.29, 5.740 ± 6.41, 7.306 ± 8.85, and 6.580 ± 6.47 for all, mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 patients, respectively. One-way analysis of variance test relative quantification (fold change) TNF-α (mean ± standard deviation) for mild, moderate, and severe groups revealed non-significant at P < 0.05, the F-ratio value is 0.39889 and the P-value is 0.672109. Conclusion: The present study concludes upregulation of TNF-α gene in PBMC of COVID-19-positive patients without significant differences among different severity groups.

Keywords

• covid-19
• gene expression
• severity
• tnf-
• upregulation