Duan, Zilei
Zhang, Juan
Chen, Xue
Liu, Ming
Zhao, Hongwen
Jin, Lin
Zhang, Zhiye
Luan, Ning
Meng, Ping
Wang, Jing
Tan, Zhaoxia
Li, Yaxiong
Deng, Guohong
Lai, Ren http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3123-2336
Funding for this research was provided by:
Chinese Academy of Sciences (SAJC201606, XDB31000000, KFJ-BRP-008, XDA12040221, Youth Innovation Promotion Association (2017432))
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31930015, 81770464, 82104130, U2002219, 32002311)
Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department (2019FA006, 2019FI014, 2019FB127, 202101AU070176)
PLA Youth Talent Project (17QNP010)
Chongqing Science and Technology Commission (COVID-19 Project 2020NCPZX01)
Yunnan Provincial Postdoctoral Science Foundation (202001AT070128)
Article History
Received: 30 January 2022
Revised: 28 March 2022
Accepted: 13 April 2022
First Online: 21 May 2022
Declarations
:
: The authors declare no competing financial interests.
: All human specimens and clinical information were collected with informed consent of the patients prior to the study from the Chongqing Public Health Medical Center (CPHMC) and Department of Infectious Diseases, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medial University). Patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (<i>n</i> = 62) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs, <i>n</i> = 21) were included in this study. For the measurement of LL-37, thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen, prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), numbers of each group indicated in the text. COVID-19 patients were divided into mild or moderate (MM, <i>n</i> = 40) and severe or critical (SC, <i>n</i> = 22) groups according to the Chinese Clinical Guidance for COVID-19 Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment (6th edition). Briefly, patients with mild or moderate (MM) disease were defined based on the following clinical symptoms: 1. Mild clinical symptoms, with no sign of pneumonia on chest imaging; 2. Fever and respiratory symptoms, with signs of pneumonia through radiological assessment. Patients with severe or critical (SC) disease were defined based on the following clinical symptoms: 1. Shortness of breath, respiratory rate (RR) ≥ 30 times/min, oxygen saturation ≤ 93% at rest, alveolar oxygen partial pressure/fraction of inspiration O<sub>2</sub> (PaO<sub>2</sub>/FiO<sub>2</sub>) ≤ 300 mmHg; 2. Respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, shock, combined with other organ failure needed ICU monitoring and treatment. Determination of LL-37 in the plasma of COVID-19 patients and HCs was approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Public Health Medical Center (2020–002-01-KY, 2020–003-01-KY). The study and all animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Review Board and Animal Care and Use Committee at Kunming Institute of Zoology (SMKX-20201021–15).
: All authors have read and approved the manuscript.