Gülbin Aydın

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak poses a major global threat to the public health worldwide. The infectious disease caused by the virus that affected the entire world was named as the Coronavirus disease (COVID). The knowledge regarding the wide clinico-biological aspects of the COVID continues to evolve very rapidly, given the growing data from all over the world. During this complicated process, healthcare professionals have benefited from each other's experiences in combatting against the COVID syndrome. COVID related studies have been performed by a wide variety of research groups in Turkey as well as the rest of the world. The aim of this paper is to outline Turkish COVID research indexed in the LitCovid system. LitCovid is a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific data about the SARS-CoV COVID's first case was detected in Turkey, on March 11th, Six months after the first case was observed, the total number of COVID patients was reported to be as ,, and the total number of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was The genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus showed significant identity to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Numerous drugs including lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir, neuraminidase inhibitors, remdesivir, umifenovir, azithromycin, and chloroquine have been suggested for the management of COVID although the exact treatment is yet to be determined.

BACKGROUND: The effectual immune response is crucial to defeat viral infections. However, exuberant immune response with features of macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) lead detrimental consequences in COVID patients. Interleukin (IL) is one of the leading cytokines in MAS which has not been studied in COVID OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of IL with the other inflammatory markers and disease severity in COVID for predicting disease prognosis. METHODS: Patients with COVID who had confirmed diagnosis with SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid RT-PCR were enrolled into the study. Data on demographic and clinical characteristics, and laboratory values of CRP, ferritin, d-dimer and procalcitonin were measured on admission. Patients were followed up prospectively with a standardized approach until hospital discharge or death. Individuals were classified as asymptomatic, mild and severe pneumonia according to their clinical, laboratory and radiological characteristics. Worse outcome was defined as requirement of intensive care unit (ICU) admission or death. Blood samples were collected at enrollment and serum levels of IL-6 and IL were determined by ELISA. Association between IL and other inflammatory markers and prognosis were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 58 COVID patients (50% male) with a median age of 43 (min max 81) years. Twenty age and sex matched healthy subjects were served as control group. The study population was divided into three groups according to disease severity: asymptomatic (n = 20), mild pneumonia group (n = 27) and a severe group (n = 11). During follow up nine (%) patients required ICU admission and three of them were died eventually. Serum IL were correlated with other inflammatory markers and biochemical markers of organ injury; creatinine, liver enzymes and troponin. Serum IL levels were remarkably higher in COVID patients compared to healthy subjects with being highest in severe pneumonia group (p < ). IL serum concentrations were almost four-fold higher in patients with worse outcome compared to good outcome (p < ). Serum IL above the cut off value of  pg/mL on admission was associated with fold increased risk of ICU admission. CONCLUSIONS: The serum concentrations of IL correlate with other inflammatory markers and reflect disease severity. Results of the present study shed light on role of IL on COVID pathogenesis and might provide an evidence for the clinical trials on IL antagonists for the treatment of severe COVID patients.