Gene expression profile in peripheral blood cells of patients with COVID-19

The clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) varies from mild symptoms to acute respiratory distress syndrome, hyperinflammation, and coagulation disorder. The hematopoietic system plays a critical role in the observed hyperinflammation, particularly in severely ill patients. Using peripheral blood cells (PBCs) for gene expression analysis is valuable to evaluate disease-associated and drug-response related genes. In this study, we aimed to explore the gene expression profile of PBCs in patients with COVID‐19.

Material & methods. Whole blood samples were collected from 19 patients with acute COVID‐19 infection and 20 healthy volunteers. The gene expression of PBCs was determined by RT-qPCR.

Results. We investigated the expression of cytokines, chemokines, interferon-stimulated pro-oxidation, and coagulation genes in PBCs of the infected and healthy samples. Up-regulated expression of some genes was found out in the blood of COVID‐19-infected patients compared to the healthy sample.

Conclusions: We have identified some genes in whole blood that classifies COVID‐19-infected and healthy patients with good accuracy. These results suggested that the expression of cytokines, coagulation, and interferon-stimulated genes in PBCs can be used for early detection of hyperinflammation, coagulation disorders, and evaluation of efficiency treatment of this disease.