Relation of obesity with some inflammatory cytokines in patients with COVID-19

Background and objective: Corona virus pandemic shifted research toward focusing on identifying individuals at risk of contracting the virus. New reports linked obesity with outcome of COVID19, cytokine storm been implicated in immunopathogenesis of COVID19. This study aimed to investigate the impact of bodyweight on the cytokine dysregulation in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This study included 294 participants, classified into four groups: exposed, non-exposed, vaccinated and non-vaccinated, this classification made on the basis of viral exposure and vaccinations status. The participants further divided into obese and non-obese. The concentration levels of IL-2, IL-8 and lymphocyte measured for all the participants enrolled in this study. Results: IL-2 concentration was moderately increased following vaccination in non-exposed and exposed individuals, the highest level (200 pg/ml) detected among COVID-19 exposed group. Similar changes were detected for IL-8 concentration following vaccination. The highest level of IL-8 (211.3 pg/ml) was among exposed-vaccinated group. In addition, vaccination induced lymphocyte counts in both control vaccinated and exposed vaccinated groups 31.4 cells/ml and 33.2 cells/ml respectively. Moreover, obese groups showed highest levels of both IL-2 and IL-8 concentrations in all study groups compared to non-obese ones, this finding was also applicable for the lymphocyte concentration levels but to lesser extent. Conclusion: Obesity might increase the risk of developing a severe COVID-19 infection. Although there was upregulation in IL-2 and IL-8 among obese participants, but they were statistically non-significant. Vaccination could have a role in modulation of these cytokines. Keywords: COVID-19; IL-2; IL-8; Exposed individuals; Vaccinated individuals; Lymphocyte.