Changes of LipoxinA 4 Levels Following Early Hospital Management of Patients with Non-Severe COVID-19: A Pilot Study

  1. Farzaneh Jamali
  2. Bita Shahrami
  3. Amirmahdi Mojtahedzadeh
  4. Farhad Najmeddin
  5. Amir Ahmad Arabzadeh
  6. Azar Hadadi
  7. Mohammad Sharifzadeh
  8. Mojtaba Mojtahedzadeh

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Abstract

LipoxinA 4 (LXA 4 ) is an anti-inflammatory biomarker participating in the active process of inflammation resolution, which is suggested to be effective on infectious and inflammatory diseases like COVID-19. In this study, we hypothesized that LXA 4 levels may increase following COVID-19 treatment and are even more accurate than commonly used inflammatory markers such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), c-reactive protein (CRP), and ferritin. To test this hypothesis, a pilot study was conducted with 31 adult hospitalized patients with non-severe COVID-19. LXA 4 levels were measured at the baseline and 48-72 hours later. Accordingly, ESR and CRP levels were collected on the first day of hospitalization. Moreover, the maximum serum ferritin levels were collected during the five days. LXA 4 levels significantly increased at 48-72 hours compared to the baseline. ESR, CRP, and ferritin levels were positively correlated with the increased LXA4. In contrast, aging was shown to negatively correlate with the increased LXA 4 levels. LXA 4 may be known as a valuable marker to assess the treatment response among non-elderly patients with non-severe COVID-19. Furthermore, LXA 4 could be considered as a potential treatment option under inflammatory conditions. Further studies are necessary to clarify LXA 4 role in COVID-19 pathogenesis, as well as the balance between such pro-resolving mediators and inflammatory parameters.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.18.22273880: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Sina Hospital and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) (IR.TUMS.MEDICINE.REC.1399.755).
    Consent: Patients’ informed consent was obtained before enrolment.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    However, this pilot study also had some limitations. Firstly, the small sample size made it difficult to interpret our findings. The second limitation is the lack of a control group. Next, we did not explore the factors affecting LXA4 serum levels, including the onset of symptoms in patients, comorbidities, and medication history. Moreover, we did not exclude the patients receiving anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., corticosteroids) before the second sampling.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2022.04.18.22273880v1 on medRxiv