Inferring molecular mechanisms of dexamethasone therapy in severe COVID-19 from existing transcriptomic data.

ABSTRACT: Dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, has previously shown mortality benefit in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a randomized controlled trial. As the illness is considered to reflect a hyperinflammatory state, this therapeutic effectiveness is presumably ascribed to broad anti-inflammatory activities of glucocorticoids. Here, an unbiased analysis of available transcriptomic data on lung and blood immune cells from severe COVID-19 patients and matching cellular models of dexamethasone treatment is presented that supports this presumption. Comparison of differentially expressed genes in severe COVID-19 with that in dexamethasone treated cells reveals a small set of genes that are regulated in opposite direction between the disease and the drug, and are enriched for genes a

SUBMITTER: Sharma A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8054526 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature