Department of Hepatology, The Second People's Hospital of Fuyang City, Fuyang 236015, Anhui Province, PR China.
Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Chengdu 610052, Sichuan Province, PR China.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2023 Jul;120:110333. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110333. Epub 2023 May 15.
The differences in host antiviral gene expression and disease severity between vaccinated and non-vaccinated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients are not well characterized. We sought to compare the clinical characteristics and host antiviral gene expression patterns of vaccinated and non-vaccinated cohorts at the Second People's Hospital of Fuyang City.
In this case-control study, we retrospectively analyzed 113 vaccinated patients with a COVID-19 Omicron variant infection, 46 non-vaccinated COVID-19 patients, and 24 healthy subjects (no history of COVID-19) recruited from the Second People's Hospital of Fuyang City. Blood samples were collected from each study participant for RNA extraction and PCR. We compared host antiviral gene expression profiles between healthy controls and COVID-19 patients who were either vaccinated or non-vaccinated at the time of infection.
In the vaccinated group, most patients were asymptomatic, with only 42.9 % of patients developing fever. Notably, no patients had extrapulmonary organ damage. In contrast, 21.4 % of patients in the non-vaccinated group developed severe/critical (SC) disease and 78.6 % had mild/moderate (MM) disease, with fever occurring in 74.2 % patients. We found that Omicron infection in COVID-19 vaccinated patients was associated with significantly increased expression of several important host antiviral genes including IL12B, IL13, CXCL11, CXCL9, IFNA2, IFNA1, IFNγ, and TNFα.
Vaccinated patients infected with the Omicron variant were mostly asymptomatic. In contrast, non-vaccinated patients frequently developed SC or MM disease. Older patients with SC COVID-19 also had a higher occurrence of mild liver dysfunction. Omicron infection in COVID-19 vaccinated patients was associated with the activation of key host antiviral genes and thus may play a role in reducing disease severity.
接种疫苗和未接种疫苗的 2019 冠状病毒病（COVID-19）患者之间宿主抗病毒基因表达和疾病严重程度的差异尚不清楚。我们旨在比较富阳市第二人民医院接种疫苗和未接种疫苗队列的临床特征和宿主抗病毒基因表达模式。
在这项病例对照研究中，我们回顾性分析了 113 名感染奥密克戎变异株的接种疫苗的 COVID-19 患者、46 名未接种 COVID-19 患者和 24 名来自富阳市第二人民医院的健康对照（无 COVID-19 史）。从每位研究参与者采集血液样本进行 RNA 提取和 PCR。我们比较了健康对照组和感染时接种或未接种疫苗的 COVID-19 患者之间宿主抗病毒基因表达谱。
在接种组中，大多数患者无症状，仅有 42.9%的患者发热。值得注意的是，没有患者出现肺外器官损伤。相比之下，未接种组的 21.4%患者发展为重症/危重症（SC）疾病，78.6%患者为轻症/中症（MM）疾病，74.2%的患者发热。我们发现，接种 COVID-19 疫苗的奥密克戎感染与多种重要宿主抗病毒基因的表达显著增加相关，包括 IL12B、IL13、CXCL11、CXCL9、IFNA2、IFNA1、IFNγ和 TNFα。
接种奥密克戎变异株的患者多无症状。相比之下，未接种疫苗的患者常发展为 SC 或 MM 疾病。发生 SC COVID-19 的老年患者也有更高的轻度肝功能障碍发生率。接种 COVID-19 疫苗的奥密克戎感染与关键宿主抗病毒基因的激活有关，因此可能在减轻疾病严重程度方面发挥作用。
