Expression of plasma IFN signaling-related miRNAs during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and its association with RBD-IgG antibody response

12Citations
Citations of this article
24Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a huge challenge worldwide. Although previous studies have suggested that type I interferon (IFN-I) could inhibit the virus replication, the expression characteristics of IFN-I signaling-related miRNAs (ISR-miRNAs) during acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and its relationship with receptor-binding domain (RBD) IgG antibody response at the recovery phase remain unclear. Methods: Expression profiles of 12 plasma ISR-miRNAs in COVID-19 patients and healthy controls were analyzed using RT-qPCR. The level of RBD-IgG antibody was determined using the competitive ELISA. Spearman correlation was done to measure the associations of plasma ISR-miRNAs with clinical characteristics during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and RBD-IgG antibody response at the recovery phase. Results: Compared with the healthy controls, COVID-19 patients exhibited higher levels of miR-29b-3p (Z = 3.15, P = 0.002) and miR-1246 (Z = 4.98, P < 0.001). However, the expression of miR-186-5p and miR-15a-5p were significantly decreased. As the results shown, miR-30b-5p was negatively correlated with CD4 + T cell counts (r = − 0.41, P = 0.027) and marginally positively correlated with fasting plasma glucose in COVID-19 patients (r = 0.37, P = 0.052). The competitive ELISA analysis showed the plasma level of miR-497-5p at the acute phase was positively correlated with RBD-IgG antibody response (r = 0.48, P = 0.038). Conclusions: Our present results suggested that the expression level of ISR-miRNAs was not only associated with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection but also with RBD-IgG antibody response at the recovery phase of COVID-19. Future studies should be performed to explore the biological significance of ISR-miRNAs in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Wu, J., Liu, X., Shao, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, R., Xue, H., … Dong, C. (2021). Expression of plasma IFN signaling-related miRNAs during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and its association with RBD-IgG antibody response. Virology Journal, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-021-01717-7

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free