Cytokine Profiling in Omicron Infection

Plasma concentrations of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors were determined in Omicron-infected patients (n = 19) and uninfected controls (n = 36) using a Bio-plex Multiplex Immunoassay System (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA) using a Bio-plex ProTM Human Cytokine 27-plex assay kit as reported previously [24 (link)] as per the manufacturer's instructions. Levels of 15 cytokines, including the pro-inflammatory (IL-1β, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-9, IL-15, IL-17, TNF-α), anti-inflammatory (IL1-RA, IL-4, IL-10, IL-13), and Th1 (IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-12 p70) cytokines along with seven chemokines (Eotaxin, CCL-2, CCL-3, CCL-4, CCL-5, IL-8, CXCL-10) and five growth factors (basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF), G-CSF, GM-CSF, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet-derived growth factor-bb (PDGF-bb)) were estimated. The lowest value of the respective standards was used in the case of undetected concentrations of the cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors in the tested samples [23 (link), 24 (link)].