Immature granulocytes: Innovative biomarker for SARS‑CoV‑2 infection

Georgakopoulou,Vasiliki Epameinondas; Makrodimitri,Sotiria; Triantafyllou,Maria; Samara,Stamatia; Voutsinas,Pantazis M.; Anastasopoulou,Amalia; Papageorgiou,Chrysovalantis V.; Spandidos,Demetrios A.; Gkoufa,Aikaterini; Papalexis,Petros; Xenou,Euthalia; Chelidonis,Georgios; Sklapani,Pagona; Trakas,Nikolaos; Sipsas,Nikolaos V.

doi:10.3892/mmr.2022.12733

Immature granulocytes: Innovative biomarker for SARS‑CoV‑2 infection

Authors:
- Vasiliki Epameinondas Georgakopoulou
- Sotiria Makrodimitri
- Maria Triantafyllou
- Stamatia Samara
- Pantazis M. Voutsinas
- Amalia Anastasopoulou
- Chrysovalantis V. Papageorgiou
- Demetrios A. Spandidos
- Aikaterini Gkoufa
- Petros Papalexis
- Euthalia Xenou
- Georgios Chelidonis
- Pagona Sklapani
- Nikolaos Trakas
- Nikolaos V. Sipsas
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Affiliations: Department of Infectious Diseases‑COVID‑19 Unit, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece, First Department of Internal Medicine, Laiko General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece, Pulmonology Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece, Laboratory of Clinical Virology, Medical School, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece, Unit of Endocrinology, First Department of Propedeutic and Internal Medicine, Laiko General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece, Laboratory of Hematology, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece, National Actuarial Authority, 10559 Athens, Greece, Department of Cytology, Mitera Hospital, 15123 Athens, Greece, Department of Biochemistry, Sismanogleio Hospital, 15126 Athens, Greece
Published online on: May 12, 2022 https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2022.12733
Article Number: 217
Copyright: © Georgakopoulou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Immature granulocytes (IGs) include metamyelocytes, myelocytes and promyelocytes, and are the precursors of neutrophils. Increased IG counts found in peripheral blood indicate an enhanced bone marrow activity. In addition, IGs have been evaluated in numerous clinical conditions, such as severe acute pancreatitis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome and infectious complications following open‑heart surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass. Neutrophils are considered to play a crucial role in the host defense during bacterial and fungal infections, and are involved in the antiviral immune response. Numerous studies have reported the role of neutrophils in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) infection, concluding that the percentage of neutrophils may be a predictor of the severity of COVID‑19 infection. There has been limited research regarding the role of neutrophil precursors in viral infections, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. The present thus aimed to evaluate the role of the IG count in patients hospitalized due to COVID‑19 infection. The patients were predominantly infected with the alpha variant and were all unvaccinated. The IG count was measured and was found to be associated with disease severity, with patient outcomes, with the duration of hospitalization and with the development of complications. The IG count was a significantly associated with the severity of COVID‑19 infection, with greater IG count values being detected in severe and critical cases. In addition, greater IG count values were associated with a longer duration of hospitalization. Furthermore, the IG count was found to be an independent prognostic biomarker of intubation and mortality in patients with COVID‑19, according to multivariate logistic regression analysis, including age, the male sex and the presence of comorbidities as confounders.

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