Abstract A recent outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China was found to be caused by a 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2 or HCoV-19). We previously reported the clinical features of 12 patients with 2019-nCoV infections in Shenzhen, China. To further understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and find better ways to monitor and treat the disease caused by 2019-nCoV, we measured the levels of 48 cytokines in the blood plasma of those 12 COVID-19 patients. Thirty-eight out of the 48 measured cytokines in the plasma of 2019-nCoV-infected patients were significantly elevated compared to healthy individuals. Seventeen cytokines were linked to 2019-nCoV loads. Fifteen cytokines, namely M-CSF, IL-10, IFN-α2, IL-17, IL-4, IP-10, IL-7, IL-1ra, G-CSF, IL-12, IFN-γ, IL-1α, IL-2, HGF and PDGF-BB, were strongly associated with the lung-injury Murray score and could be used to predict the disease severity of 2019-nCoV infections by calculating the area under the curve of the receiver-operating characteristics. Our results suggest that 2019-nCoV infections trigger extensive changes in a wide array of cytokines, some of which could be potential biomarkers of disease severity of 2019-nCoV infections. These findings will likely improve our understanding of the immunopathologic mechanisms of this emerging disease. Our results also suggest that modulators of cytokine responses may play a therapeutic role in combating the disease once the functions of these elevated cytokines have been characterized.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Cytokine storm, 2019-nCoV, IP-10, IL-17, 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Cytokines, Pneumonia, severity, disease severity, cytokine, China, 2019 novel coronavirus, Characteristics, outbreak, therapeutic, Patient, plasma, emerging disease, IL-10, predict, clinical feature, mechanism, HGF, function, COVID-19 patients, IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-7, blood plasma, IL-4, Potential biomarker, cytokine response, Shenzhen, healthy individuals, IFN-α2, G-CSF, pathogenesis of COVID-19, treat, IL-12, IL-1α, 2019-nCoV infections, 2019-nCoV infection, MONITOR, M-CSF, Wuhan, China, combating, IMPROVE, caused, significantly, reported, the disease, elevated, characterized, changes in, 【제목키워드】 cytokine, Lung injury, Viral load, plasma, COVID-19 patient, selective,