The role of resistin in Influenza infection: preliminary results from the INNOVATE study

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Resistin is a host defence cysteine-enriched peptide stored in azurophilic and specific neutrophil granules. It is an adipokine with diverse reported effects on immunometabolism. Serum resistin was previously reported to be associated with disease severity in COVID-19 pneumonia. Due to the limited data on the role of resistin in the immune response to viral infection we investigated levels of serum resistin in patients admitted to hospital with acute viral infections. <bold>Methods:</bold> INNOVATE was single-centre prospective observational cohort study of patients with acute viral infections confirmed by PCR (December 2022-March 2023). Resistin and IL-6 serum levels were measured by ELISA. Disease severity was assessed by WHO clinical scale. <bold>Results:</bold> 91 patients were recruited into INNOVATE study. Regardless the presence of comorbidities there was no association between increased resistin level and clinical severity across the cohorts. Interestingly, compared to SARS-CoV-2 infection patients with influenza had higher levels of serum resistin (median 90.65 ng/ml vs 53.15ng/ml, p=0.0315). There was no difference between the two groups in levels of serum IL-6. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> Serum resistin was increased in patients with influenza infection compared to SARS-CoV-2. These preliminary results suggest differences in the systemic inflammatory responses to diverse viruses.