Transcriptional response to the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in patients with severe COVID-19

For a more precise understanding of the course of the pathological process in patients with severe COVID-19, it is necessary to continue the search for factors that affect the course of the pathological process and the possibility of a favorable outcome in critically ill patients. Comparative analysis of the transcriptome of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMCs) in patients with a severe clinical course of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV2 Delta strain revealed a number of differentially expressed genes that distinguish patients with different clinical outcomes (survivors vs. nonsurvivors) in the period of 30 days after admission to the hospital. resuscitation. Most of them are associated with the "negative regulation of viral process" and "negative regulation of immune response" clusters. Moreover, in surviving patients, there is increased expression of the key genes C1QB, C1QA, ISG15, SERPING1, VSIG4, KLRD1, TRPM4, and HFE incorporated in these clusters. Among these key genes, the ISG15 gene, which links several clusters of GO enrichments and encodes an interferon-induced ubiquitin-like protein, deserves special attention. An increase in the level of expression of the ISG15 protein may play a role in response to the expression of the viral protease PLpro, but the exact role of this protein in the prevention of negative disease outcomes is not yet clear.