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High generation of reactive oxygen species from neutrophils in patients with severe COVID-19
Martin, Helena Le Breuilly, Martin Whitehouse, Tony Gao-Smith, Fang Duggal, Niharika Lord, Janet M Mian, Rubina Sarphie, David Moss, Paul
Martin, Helena
Le Breuilly, Martin
Whitehouse, Tony
Gao-Smith, Fang
Duggal, Niharika
Lord, Janet M
Mian, Rubina
Sarphie, David
Moss, Paul
Editors
Other contributors
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Epub Date
Issue Date
2022-06-21
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Abstract
Neutrophilia and an elevated neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio are both characteristic features of severe COVID-19 infection. However, functional neutrophil responses have been poorly investigated in this setting. We utilised a novel PMA-based stimulation assay to determine neutrophil-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in patients with severe COVID-19 infection, non-COVID related sepsis and healthy study participants. ROS production was markedly elevated in COVID-19 patients with median values ninefold higher than in healthy controls and was particularly high in patients on mechanical ventilation. ROS generation correlated strongly with neutrophil count and elevated levels were also seen in patients with non-COVID related sepsis. Relative values, adjusted for neutrophil count, were high in both groups but extreme low or high values were seen in two patients who died shortly after testing, potentially indicating a predictive value for neutrophil function. Our results show that the high levels of neutrophils observed in patients with COVID-19 and sepsis exhibit functional capacity for ROS generation. This may contribute to the clinical features of acute disease and represents a potential novel target for therapeutic intervention.
Citation
Veenith, T., Martin, H., Le Breuilly, M. et al. High generation of reactive oxygen species from neutrophils in patients with severe COVID-19. Sci Rep 12, 10484 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13825-7
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Research Unit
PubMed ID
35729319 (pubmed)
PubMed Central ID
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Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2026 The Authors. Published by SpringerNature. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence.
The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13825-7
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2045-2322
EISSN
2045-2322
ISBN
ISMN
Gov't Doc #
Sponsors
The research was funded in part by Innovate UK, Project No. 56969, Project title: COVID-19: Development of novel algorithm-driven digital platform for assessing the Leukocyte ImmunoTest as a clinical parameter in monitoring vulnerability to coronavirus.
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Licence for published version: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International