| Autor: |
Simone Weber, Victoria Kehl, Johanna Erber, Karolin I. Wagner, Ana-Marija Jetzlsperger, Teresa Burrell, Kilian Schober, Philipp Schommers, Max Augustin, Claudia S. Crowell, Markus Gerhard, Christof Winter, Andreas Moosmann, Christoph D. Spinner, Ulrike Protzer, Dieter Hoffmann, Elvira D’Ippolito, Dirk H. Busch |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2022 |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
PLoS ONE, Vol 17, Iss 5 (2022) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
| Popis: |
Background COVID-19 has so far affected more than 250 million individuals worldwide, causing more than 5 million deaths. Several risk factors for severe disease have been identified, most of which coincide with advanced age. In younger individuals, severe COVID-19 often occurs in the absence of obvious comorbidities. Guided by the finding of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific T cells with some cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 in a COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) patient, we decided to investigate whether CMV seropositivity is associated with severe or critical COVID-19. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) serostatus was investigated as control. Methods National German COVID-19 bio-sample and data banks were used to retrospectively analyze the CMV and HSV serostatus of patients who experienced mild (n = 101), moderate (n = 130) or severe to critical (n = 80) disease by IgG serology. We then investigated the relationship between disease severity and herpesvirus serostatus via statistical models. Results Non-geriatric patients (< 60 years) with severe COVID-19 were found to have a very high prevalence of CMV-seropositivity, while CMV status distribution in individuals with mild disease was similar to the prevalence in the German population; interestingly, this was not detectable in older patients. Prediction models support the hypothesis that the CMV serostatus, unlike HSV, might be a strong biomarker in identifying younger individuals with a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, in particular in absence of other co-morbidities. Conclusions We identified ‘CMV-seropositivity’ as a potential novel risk factor for severe COVID-19 in non-geriatric individuals in the studied cohorts. More mechanistic analyses as well as confirmation of similar findings in cohorts representing the currently most relevant SARS-CoV-2 variants should be performed shortly. |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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