Percentage of Th1 and Th17 Cells and Serum Level of Il-17 and Ifn-Γcytokines in Covid-19-Associated Mucormycosis Publisher Pubmed



Soleimanifar N¹ ; Assadiasl S¹ ; Rostamian A² ; Abdollahi A³ ; Salehi M⁴ ; Abdolmaleki M⁵ ; Barzegari S⁶ ; Sobati A⁷ ; Sadr M¹ ; Mohebbi B¹ ; Mojtahedi H¹ ; Nicknam MH^{1, 8} Show Affiliations
Source: Medical Mycology Published:2023

Abstract

The considerable number of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients who developed mucormycosis infections in West and Central Asia urged a need to investigate the underlying causes of this fatal complication. It was hypothesized that an immunocompromised state secondary to the excessive administration of anti-inflammatory drugs was responsible for the outburst of mucormycosis in COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we aimed to study the implication of two major subsets of adaptive immunity T helper (Th)-1 and Th17 cells in disease development. Thirty patients with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis, 38 with COVID-19 without any sign or symptom of mucormycosis, and 26 healthy individuals were included. The percentage of Th1 and Th17 cells in peripheral blood, as well as the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-17 and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), were evaluated using flow cytometry and ELISA techniques, respectively. Th17 cell percentage in patients with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis was significantly lower than in COVID-19 patients (P-value: <0.001) and healthy subjects (P-value: 0.01). In addition, the serum level of IL-17 in COVID-19 patients was significantly higher than that of healthy individuals (P-value: 0.01). However, neither the frequency of Th1 cells nor the serum level of IFN-γwas different between the study groups. Given the critical role of Th17 cells in the defense against mucosal fungal infections, these findings suggest that low numbers of Th17 and insufficient levels of IL-17 might be a predisposing factor for the development of mucormycosis during or after COVID-19 infection. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology.