Hosseini Faezeh, Azadmehr Abbas, Saleki Kiarash, Ahmadifard Mohamadreza, Oladnabi Morteza, Shirzad Moein, Javanian Mostafa
Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences Babol Iran.
Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences Babol Iran.
Health Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 7;8(4):e70630. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70630. eCollection 2025 Apr.
COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a pandemic infectious disease. So far, it has been known that this virus uses several receptors to enter the host cell, one of which is neuropilin-1 (NRP1). Also, one of the main causes of clinical manifestations, severity of disease, and mortality of patients is cytokine storm syndrome, one of these cytokines being interleukin (IL)-6. Our aim was to study the level of expression of NRP1 and IL-6 genes in COVID-19 patients by using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).
Our study population included the test group (80 patients with COVID-19) and the control group (30 healthy individuals). Venous blood was taken from all subjects. After isolating PBMCs from blood using Ficoll, RNA was extracted. Then, cDNA synthesis, the expression level of NRP1 and IL-6 compared to GAPDH housekeeping gene was measured by real-time PCR.
The level of NRP1 gene expression was increased significantly in COVID-19 different groups compared to the control group. Surprisingly, it was observed that the amount of NRP1 gene decreased in the vaccinated group compared to nonvaccinated groups. IL-6 gene expression was also significantly increased in all groups except vaccinated patients compared to the control group. Also, the results indicated that there was a positive and statistically considerable relationship between IL-6 expression level and NRP1 expression level ( = 0.03).
The significant increase in the expression of NRP1 and IL-6 genes in COVID-19 patients, especially in moderate and severe cases, indicates their potential involvement in the progression of the disease, which may serve as biomarkers of disease severity. Also, since these genes play an important role in causing severe inflammation, cytokine storm, and immunopathological complications of COVID-19, further investigations maybe needed to achieve therapeutic goals to control COVID-19 and similar diseases.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）是由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引起的大流行性传染病。到目前为止，已知这种病毒利用多种受体进入宿主细胞，其中之一是神经纤毛蛋白1（NRP1）。此外，细胞因子风暴综合征是患者临床表现、疾病严重程度和死亡率的主要原因之一，这些细胞因子之一是白细胞介素（IL）-6。我们的目的是通过使用外周血单个核细胞（PBMC）研究COVID-19患者中NRP1和IL-6基因的表达水平。
我们的研究人群包括试验组（80例COVID-19患者）和对照组（30名健康个体）。采集所有受试者的静脉血。使用Ficoll从血液中分离出PBMC后，提取RNA。然后，进行cDNA合成，通过实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）测量与甘油醛-3-磷酸脱氢酶（GAPDH）管家基因相比的NRP1和IL-6的表达水平。
与对照组相比，COVID-19不同组中NRP1基因表达水平显著升高。令人惊讶的是，观察到与未接种疫苗组相比，接种疫苗组中NRP1基因的量减少。与对照组相比，除接种疫苗的患者外，所有组中IL-6基因表达也显著增加。此外，结果表明IL-6表达水平与NRP1表达水平之间存在正相关且具有统计学意义（P = 0.03）。
COVID-19患者中NRP1和IL-6基因表达的显著增加，尤其是在中度和重度病例中，表明它们可能参与疾病的进展，这可能作为疾病严重程度的生物标志物。此外，由于这些基因在引起COVID-19的严重炎症、细胞因子风暴和免疫病理并发症中起重要作用，可能需要进一步研究以实现控制COVID-19及类似疾病的治疗目标。
