Abstract
Interleukin-38 (IL-38) has recently been considered as a cytokine with anti-inflammatory properties in viral respiratory infections, particularly coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), but the evidence has not been well elucidated. Therefore, a case-control study was conducted to determine IL-38 serum levels in 148 patients with COVID-19 (45 moderate, 55 severe and 48 critical) and 113 controls. Results demonstrated that IL-38 levels did not show significant differences between patients and controls (68.7 [interquartile range: 62.7-75.6] vs. 67.7 [58.0-82.6] pg/mL; probability = 0.457). Similarly, patients stratified by disease severity, age group, gender or chronic disease showed no significant differences between IL-38 levels in each stratum. Whereas, overweight/obese patients had a significantly lower median of IL-38 compared to normal-weight patients. Further, IL-38 showed significantly higher levels in the age group ≥ 50 years of patients with crit ical illness than in the age group < 50 years. Female patients with severe disease also showed significantly elevated levels of IL-38 compared to male patients. In conclusion, the study indicated that serum IL-38 levels were not affected by COVID-19 infection, but the distribution of patients according to disease severity, age, gender and BMI may better reveal the role of IL-38 in disease pathogenesis.
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