IP-10 and complement activation as friend or foe in COVID-19

The Innate immune system senses danger signals of COVID-19 infection and produce an orchestration of cellular, complement and cytokines cascades. These led to the approach using immunosuppressive agents. It is intriguing whether certain biomarkers can aid the proper administration of such drugs.

Plasma specimens of 58 COVID-19 patients with differing severity, from very mild illness (group A), mild (group B), moderate (group C), and severe/critical illness (group D) were assayed for cyto-chemokines and terminal complement complex (SC5b-9) during the course of diseases. None received anti-IL-6 therapy, there was no mortality in this cohort.

IP-10 and RANTES levels were dominant cytokines. IP-10 levels increased significantly in all groups when compared between pre-nadir and nadir phases (group A, p =0.428; group B =0.034; group C =0.159; group D <0.001) and in groups B and D when compared between nadir and recovery phases (p <0.001). RANTES levels were elevated in all groups across all phases with no significant differences. SC5b-9 levels increased significantly as compared to healthy controls [pre-nadir- group A versus healthy, p =0.122; group B-D versus healthy, p =0.021); nadir-group A versus healthy, p =0.003; group B-D versus healthy, p <0.001; recovery phase (p <0.001)] but not between groups A and B-D at pre-nadir (p=0.606).

The absence of significant pro-inflammatory responses and early elevation of IP-10 levels and complement activation may be favorable and necessary for viral elimination in COVID-19 patients. Expression of distinct cyto-chemokines during each clinical phase may be useful for guiding proper therapeutic interventions on alleviating thrombo-inflammation responses to COVID-19 infection.