Clinical Investigation of Leukocyte DNA Damage in COVID-19 Patients

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.3390/cimb45020062", "ISSN": [ "1467-3045" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cimb45020062", "abstract": "<jats:p>This prospective cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate leukocyte DNA damage in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients. In this study, 50 COVID-19-positive patients attending the Erzurum City Hospital Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic and 42 control group patients were included. DNA damage was detected in living cells through leukocyte isolation in 50 COVID-19-positive patients using the comet assay method. DNA tail/head (olive) moments were evaluated and compared. White blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (HGB), neutrophils (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM), eosinophils (EO), monocytes (MONO), basophils (BASO), platelets (PLT), and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were analyzed. The RBC, lymphocyte, eosinophil, and monocyte means were significantly higher in the control group (p &lt; 0.05), whereas the HGB and neutrophile means were significantly higher in the study group (p &lt; 0.05). There were significant negative correlations between COVID-19 and RBC (r = −0.863), LYM (r = −0.542), EO (r = −0.686), and MONO (r = −0.385). Meanwhile, there were significant positive correlations between COVID-19 and HGB (r = 0.863), NEU (r = 0.307), tail moment (r = 0.598), and olive moment (r = 0.582). Both the tail and olive moment mean differences were significantly higher in the study group, with higher ranges (p &lt; 0.05). COVID-19 infection caused statistically significant increases in both the tail and olive damage percentage in patients, causing DNA damage. Lastly, the NLR rate was associated with the presence and progression of COVID-19.</jats:p>", "alternative-id": [ "cimb45020062" ], "author": [ { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5232-4336", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Doğan", "given": "Hasan", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Internal Medicine, Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Erzurum 25100, Turkey" } ], "family": "Kara", "given": "Aslı", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3971-3318", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Çankaya", "given": "Erdem", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "family": "Balkan", "given": "Eda", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "family": "Gürbüz", "given": "Muhammet Ali", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "family": "Kızılkaya", "given": "Murat", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey" } ], "family": "Aykaç", "given": "Merve", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Current Issues in Molecular Biology", "container-title-short": "CIMB", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": false, "domain": [] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 1, 20 ] ], "date-time": "2023-01-20T07:52:21Z", "timestamp": 1674201141000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2024, 8, 25 ] ], "date-time": "2024-08-25T09:50:43Z", "timestamp": 1724579443000 }, "funder": [ { "DOI": "10.13039/501100004951", "award": [ "TSA-2021-8869" ], "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "id": [ { "asserted-by": "publisher", "id": "10.13039/501100004951", "id-type": "DOI" } ], "name": "Atatürk University" } ], "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 19 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-19T16:54:53Z", "timestamp": 1742403293023, "version": "3.37.3" }, "is-referenced-by-count": 2, "issue": "2", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 1, 19 ] ] }, "journal-issue": { "issue": "2", "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 2 ] ] } }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 1, 19 ] ], "date-time": "2023-01-19T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1674086400000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/45/2/62/pdf", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "1968", "original-title": [], "page": "963-974", "prefix": "10.3390", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 1, 19 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2023, 1, 19 ] ] }, "publisher": "MDPI AG", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.7326/M20-0504", "article-title": "The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application", "author": "Lauer", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "577", "journal-title": "Ann. 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