Is It Possible to Anticipate the Severity of a Coronavirus Infection Using an Interlukin-1 Receptor Antagonist?

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious illness brought on by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and spread mostly by touch and droplets. Numerous laboratory markers have been connected to sickness and fatality since the first case was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The outbreak has steadily expanded across the country. Objective: This study investigated the impact of serum IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) levels on the clinical course and prognosis of COVID19. Materials and Methods: The study included 120 patients with COVID-19. The patients with COVID-19 were divided into three groups according to disease severity as critical disease (n=23), severe disease (n=37), and mild/moderate disease (n=60) compared with (60) healthy volunteers as control group. All basic demographic and clinical data of the patients were recorded, and blood samples were collected. Results: IL-1Ra levels were significantly higher in the all cases of patients with COVID-19 (p<0.0001). IL-1Ra levels were correlated with SpO2 and Lymphocyte negatively (r = -0.798 and -0.509 respectively; p ˂ 0.01), (r=0.32, p=0.002 and r=0.25, p=0.019, respectively), and correlated with age, SBP, DBP, WBCs, CRP, D-Dimer, Ferritin, FBG, ALT, AST, and ALP (r = 0.294, 0.525, 0.290, 0.656, 0.703, 0.724, 0.778, 0.660, 0.659, 0.703, and 0.620 respectively; p˂0.01) positively. A cutoff value of 27.525 pg/ml for IL-1Ra predicted severe COVID-19 with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 83.3% (AUC: 0.951, 95%CI 0.923–0.978; p<0.0001). Conclusion: In COVID-19, interlukin-1 receptor antagonist could be useful as a promising predictive biomarker for assessing disease severity.