Assessment of some immunological markers in patients and vaccinated individuals with COVID-19 in Kirkuk city

Abstract

Abstract Background: Infection with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) can trigger both innate and adaptive immune responses, resulting in large inflammatory reactions later in the disease. The initiation of immunological responses entails a complicated interaction between innate immune components, which quickly respond in a nonspecific manner, and specialized components of the immune system can recognize specific epitopes of antigens. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess some co-stimulating molecules in patients with COVID-19 (hospitalized and nonhospitalized) and vaccinated individuals compared with a control group in Kirkuk city. Materials and Methods: The immunological markers under study in which our methods tried to estimate them are CD28, CD80, and CD86. From 90 individuals of patients with COVID-19, vaccinated persons, and control group blood samples were collected and centrifuged to get the serum to carry out the immunological analysis. Through using nasopharyngeal swabs that were collected from non-hospitalized patients (patients out of the hospital), coronavirus infection was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Additionally, PCR tests were run on the control group to make sure they were not infected with COVID-19. Results: For the vaccinated group especially in comparison to COVID-19 patients, the revealed significant differences in the immunological markers among tested groups with respect to the CD28 test with (P value > 0.0001) and CD80 test with (P value > 0.0001), as well as the CD86 test appears to show a significant difference with (P value > 0.0001). Conclusion: This study revealed that, compared to patients with COVID-19 who were not given the vaccine, the vaccine had a role on those who received it and significantly increased some immunological markers..