Honors College Thesis
 

Differences in expression of COVID-19 related inflammatory genes in non-human primates with varying alcohol consumption

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/honors_college_theses/pn89dg443

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  • Severe cases of COVID-19 have been associated with cytokine storms, leading to widespread inflammation, tissue damage, and organ failure. Pro-inflammatory cytokines have also been shown to play a role in liver diseases, including alcoholic liver disease. To investigate alcohol consumption as a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 severity, RNA liver samples from four different cohorts of monkeys with different alcohol consumption habits: control, low, high, and binge drinking, were analyzed. Using quantitative PCR, expression of genes for important pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNFα, IL-6, and IL-1β were measured and their fold change was calculated. While an increase in expression of genes for TNFα and IL-1β was found between alcohol-consuming groups compared to the non-drinking control, significant changes in expression were found when separating the primates by drinking category. For the gene for IL-1β, low drinkers showed statistically greater expression when compared to the control (p < .001), high drinkers, (p = .0165), and binge drinkers (p < .001). Similarly, for the gene for TNFα, low drinkers showed significant differences when compared to the control (p = .0022), high (p = .0244), and binge drinkers (p < .001). Gene expression results for IL-6 were excluded from the analysis due to its unreliability. The data suggests that some levels of alcohol consumption may increase the expression of proinflammatory cytokines TNFα and IL-1β in liver tissue which may exacerbate the prevalence of cytokine storms in COVID-19. These findings provide further evidence that alcohol consumption may be a potential risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 but additional research is required.
  • Keywords: COVID-19, cytokine storm, inflammation, liver disease, alcohol, SARS-CoV-2 infections, quantitative PCR, gene expression
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