the cytokine profile in sudanese patients infected with covid-19 in kassala state, eastern sudan

Background: research is ongoing to better understand the immune response and the role of cytokines in covid-19's pathogenicity and clinical heterogeneity. objectives: this study aimed to assess the levels of tumor necrosis factor (tnf)-α, interleukin (il)-17, il-6, il-10, and il-4 in the blood of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars)-cov-2 in kassala state, eastern sudan, compared to healthy individuals residing in the same state. methods: this case-control study was conducted on 90 adult patients with covid-19 infection at kassala teaching hospital (kth), confirmed by rt-pcr, and compared to 90 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as controls. serum samples were collected and analyzed for cytokine levels using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). results: the levels of tnf-α, il-17, and il-10 in patients were significantly higher (p = 0.021, 0.000, and 0.015, respectively) than those in the control group. conversely, the il-4 levels were significantly lower (p = 0.000) in patients than in controls. a comparison between mild, moderate, and severe groups showed that the levels of tnf-α and il-10 were higher in the severe group than in the mild and moderate groups, whereas the levels of il-4 decreased with increasing disease severity without reaching significant differences. tumor necrosis factor-α, il-17, and il-4 could predict the disease severity of 2019-ncov infections according to the area under the curve (auc) of the receiver operating curve (roc). conclusions: our findings suggest that tnf-α, il-17, il-10, and il-4 can serve as indicators and reliable predictors of severe illness in sudanese patients with covid-19.