COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. The infection is associated with an increased body temperature, cough and fatigue, expectoration and headache. Patients with an extreme form of COVID-19, exhibit symptoms of severe systemic inflammation, releasing large amounts of cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. In addition, their plasma also contains antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which is the reason for the infusion of hyperimmune convalescent plasma being one of the therapies proposed for the treatment of the infection. Clinical studies have shown that the timing of plasma application, the patient's condition and the plasma antibody titer, is crucial. However, less is known about the effect of other blood plasma components. We compared the concentration of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory bioactive molecules in blood donors that recovered from COVID-19 and their concentration in blood donors that did not yet have the disease. We also examined the dependence of analyte levels on the elapsed time between the initial signs of disease and blood donation, the correlation between individual cytokines and the association of cytokine levels with IgG antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 and neutralizing antibodies. We concluded that there were no statistically significant differences or correlations, that would limit the use of hyperimmune convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
|