ASSESSMENT OF SALIVARY INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINE PROFILE IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19

OBJECTIVE: To determine comparatively the salivary expression of inflammatory cytokines in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and healthy participants, and their relationship with the prognosis of the disease. STUDY DESIGN: The study sample included 246 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and 29 healthy participants. The collected saliva was submitted to flow cytometry technique [cytometric bead array (CBA)] for evaluation of pro (IL-17, INF-γ, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-2) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10 and IL-4) cytokines. The association between the expression of cytokine levels with disease severity and clinical outcomes (discharge/transfer and death) was performed using the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: This study classified 30 (12.2%) patients as mild, 101 moderate (41.1%), 56 (22.8%) severe, and 59 (23.9%) critical. Additionally, 190 (77.2%) were discharged and 56 (22.8%) died. The expression of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines was significantly higher in the severe and critical patients than in others groups (p<0.05). However, only for pro-inflammatory cytokines was a progressive and significant increase observed from mild cases (p<0.05). The level of pro-inflammatory cytokines in patients who died was significantly higher than in those with a better prognosis (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: There is a high expression of inflammatory salivary cytokines, especially pro-inflammatory ones, in patients with a worse prognosis of COVID-19.