Central Reference Laboratory, Aikimbayev's National Scientific Center for Especially Dangerous Infections, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Department of Biodiversity and Bioresources, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Front Immunol. 2023 Jul 14;14:1223086. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1223086. eCollection 2023.
Hypertriglyceridemia, obesity, and aging are among the key risk factors for severe COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). One of the main prognostic biomarkers of ARDS is the level of cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α in the blood. In our study, we modeled hyperglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia on 18-month-old Syrian hamsters (). By 18 months, the animals showed such markers of aging as weight stabilization with a tendency to reduce it, polycystic liver disease, decreased motor activity, and foci of alopecia. The high-fat diet caused an increase in triglycerides and cholesterol, as well as fatty changes in the liver. On the third day after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, animals showed a decrease in weight in the groups with a high-fat diet. In the lungs of males on both diets, there was an increase in the concentration of IFN-α, as well as IL-6 in both males and females, regardless of the type of diet. At the same time, the levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ did not change in infected animals. Morphological studies of the lungs of hamsters with SARS-CoV-2 showed the presence of a pathological process characteristic of ARDS. These included bronchointerstitial pneumonia and diffuse alveolar damages. These observations suggest that in aging hamsters, the immune response to pro-inflammatory cytokines may be delayed to a later period. Hypertriglyceridemia, age, and gender affect the severity of COVID-19. These results will help to understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 associated with age, gender, and disorders of fat metabolism in humans.
高血脂、肥胖和衰老都是导致 COVID-19 严重病例并伴有急性呼吸窘迫综合征（ARDS）的关键风险因素。ARDS 的主要预后生物标志物之一是血液中细胞因子 IL-6 和 TNF-α的水平。在我们的研究中，我们在 18 个月大的叙利亚仓鼠（）上建立了高甘油三酯血症和高胆固醇血症模型。到 18 个月时，这些动物表现出了衰老的标志物，如体重稳定且有下降趋势、多囊性肝病、运动活性降低和脱发。高脂肪饮食导致甘油三酯和胆固醇升高，以及肝脏脂肪变性。在感染 SARS-CoV-2 病毒后的第三天，高脂肪饮食组的动物体重下降。在两种饮食的雄性动物的肺部，IFN-α浓度增加，而无论饮食类型如何，雄性和雌性动物的 IL-6 浓度都增加。同时，感染动物的 TNF-α和 IFN-γ水平没有变化。对感染 SARS-CoV-2 的仓鼠肺部的形态学研究表明，存在 ARDS 的特征性病理过程。这些过程包括细支气管炎和弥漫性肺泡损伤。这些观察结果表明，在衰老的仓鼠中，对促炎细胞因子的免疫反应可能会延迟到后期。高甘油三酯血症、年龄和性别会影响 COVID-19 的严重程度。这些结果将有助于理解与年龄、性别和脂肪代谢紊乱相关的 COVID-19 的发病机制。
