The receptor for advanced glycation end product (RAGE) pathway in COVID-19

Introduction: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) with lung involvement frequently causes morbidity and mortality. Advanced age appears to be the most important risk factor. The receptor for advanced glycation end-product (RAGE) pathway is considered to play important roles in the physiological aging and pathogenesis of lung diseases. This study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between COVID-19 and RAGE pathway. Materials and methods: This study included 23 asymptomatic patients and 35 patients with lung involvement who were diagnosed with COVID-19 as well as 22 healthy volunteers. Lung involvement was determined using computed tomography. Serum soluble-RAGE (sRAGE) levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The sRAGE levels were significantly higher in the asymptomatic group than in the control group. Age, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, and ferritin levels were higher and the sRAGE level was lower in the patients with lung involvement than in the asymptomatic patients. Conclusions: In this study, patients with high sRAGE levels were younger and had asymptomatic COVID-19. Patients with low sRAGE levels were elderly patients with lung involvement, which indicates that the RAGE pathway plays an important role in the aggravation of COVID-19

COVID-19 in elderly: Correlations of viral load, clinical course, laboratory parameters, among patients vaccinated with CoronaVac

SARS-CoV-2 virus was initially identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and a global pandemic was declared in March 2020 by World Health Organization. COVID-19 disease is characterized with severe pneumonia and hypoxemia, especially in the elderly population. The elderly population was primarily vaccinated with CoronaVac, which is a whole virion inactivated vaccine (Sinovac Biotech, China) in Turkey. This study aimed to investigate the association of viral load and laboratory parameters with the severity of the disease and vaccination status in elderly (older than 60 years old) COVID-19 patients. The age range of the patients was 61-97 years old with a mean of 71.80. Vaccinated patients had a lower viral load (P 5 0.253) in nasopharyngeal swabs during breakthrough COVID-19 infection compared to unvaccinated ones and were hospitalized for a shorter period of time in hospital wards (P 5 0.035). A lower number of patients were vaccinated in both moderate (n 5 33, 29.20%) and severe/critical group (n 5 46, 34.07%) (P 5 0.412). Only 17 (32.08%) vaccinated patients were hospitalized in an intensive care unit (ICU), whereas 36 (67.92%) of the ICU patients were unvaccinated (P 5 0.931). Severe/critical patients had higher c-reactive protein (CRP), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), fibrinogen, ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels compared to the moderate group on the admission day (P < 0.05). Our study suggested that elderly patients vaccinated with CoronaVac had a shorter stay in hospitals and according to our results CRP, PLR, fibrinogen, ferritin, and LDH levels could be used to determine the severity of the infections