Clinical outcome prediction in COVID-19 patients by lymphocyte subsets analysis and monocytes' iTNF-α expression

<p>Raw Box &amp; Whiskers plot related to a manuscript submitted to &quot;Biology&quot; journal - MDPI - https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology - https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10080735</p> <p><strong>Manuscript Title</strong>: Clinical outcome prediction in COVID-19 patients by lymphocyte subsets analysis and monocytes&rsquo; iTNF-&alpha; expression</p> <p><strong>Authors: G</strong>abriele Madonna ^1&dagger;, Silvia Sale ^2&dagger;, Mariaelena Capone ¹, Chiara De Falco ², Valentina Santocchio ², Tiziana Di Matola ², Giuseppe Fiorentino ³, Caterina Pirozzi ², Anna D&rsquo;Antonio ², Rocco Sabatino ², Lidia Atripaldi⁴, Umberto Atripaldi ⁴, Marcello Raffone ⁵, Marcello Curvietto¹, Antonio Maria Grimaldi ¹, Vito Vanella ¹, Lucia Festino ¹, Luigi Scarpato ¹, Marco Palla ¹, Michela Spatarella ⁶, Francesco Perna ⁷, Pellegrino Cerino ⁸, Gerardo Botti ⁹, Roberto Parrella ¹⁰, Vincenzo Montesarchio ¹¹, Paolo Antonio Ascierto ^{1&dagger;&dagger;*}and Luigi Atripaldi ^{2&dagger;&dagger;}</p> <p><strong>Affiliations:</strong></p> <p>1 Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Development Therapeutics Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>2 UOC Biochimica Clinica, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno - CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>3 UOC Fisiopatologia e Riabilitazione respiratoria, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno - CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>4 University of Campania &quot;Luigi Vanvitelli&quot;, Naples, Italy</p> <p>5 UOC Microbiologia e Virologia, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno - CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>6 UOSD di Farmacia, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno - CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>7 Universit&agrave; degli Studi di Napoli &quot;Federico II&quot;, Naples, Italy.</p> <p>8 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno, Portici (Na), Italy.</p> <p>9 Scientific Direction, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>10 UOC Malattie Infettive ad Indirizzo Respiratorio, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno -CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>11 UOC Oncologia, AORN Ospedali dei Colli - Monaldi &ndash; Cotugno - CTO, Napoli, Italy</p> <p>&dagger;These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship</p> <p>&dagger;&dagger;These authors have contributed equally to this work and share senior authorship</p> <p>*Correspondence:</p> <p><strong>Abstract of submitted Manuscript:</strong> T</p> <p>In December 2019 a novel coronavirus, &ldquo;SARS-CoV-2&rdquo;, was recognized as the cause of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19-disease). Several studies have explored the changes and the role of inflammatory cells and cytokines in the immunopathogenesis of disease, but until today the results have been controversial. Based on these premises, we carried out a retrospective assessment of monocytes&rsquo; intracellular TNF-&alpha; expression (iTNF-&alpha;) and on frequencies of lymphocyte sub-populations in twenty-five patients with moderate/severe COVID-19-disease. We found lymphopenia in all COVID-19 infected subjects compared with healthy subjects. On initial observation, in patients with favorable outcome we detected high absolute eosinophils count and high CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocytes ratio, while in the exitus group we observed high neutrophils and CD8+ T lymphocytes counts. During infection, in patients with favorable outcome we observed a rise in lymphocyte count, in monocytes and in Treg lymphocytes counts, in CD4+ and in CD8+ T lymphocytes count but a reduction in CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocytes ratio. Instead, in the exitus group we observed a reduction in Treg lymphocytes counts and a decrease in iTNF-&alpha; expression. Our preliminary findings point to a modulation of the different cellular mediators of immune system, which probably have a key role in the outcome of the COVID-19-disease.</p> <p><strong>Funding:</strong> This work was supported by Grants from &ldquo;Regione Campania&rdquo; through &ldquo;POR FESR CAMPANIA 2014-2020&rdquo;, CUP H64I20000300002.</p> <p><strong>Cite</strong>: Madonna, G.; Sale, S.; Capone, M.; De Falco, C.; Santocchio, V.; Di Matola, T.; Fiorentino, G.; Pirozzi, C.; D&rsquo;Antonio, A.; Sabatino, R.; Atripaldi, L.; Atripaldi, U.; Raffone, M.; Curvietto, M.; Grimaldi, A.M.; Vanella, V.; Festino, L.; Scarpato, L.; Palla, M.; Spatarella, M.; Perna, F.; Cerino, P.; Botti, G.; Parrella, R.; Montesarchio, V.; Ascierto, P.A.; Atripaldi, L. Clinical Outcome Prediction in COVID-19 Patients by Lymphocyte Subsets Analysis and Monocytes&rsquo; iTNF-&alpha; Expression. <em>Biology</em> <strong>2021</strong>, <em>10</em>, 735. doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10080735">10.3390/biology10080735</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>