Perfil clínico e correlações com comorbidades e fatores de risco em pacientes diagnosticados com SARS-COV-2

Abstract

With the objective of contributing to the understanding of the consequences caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome in patients with different comorbidities or associated risk factors, this study showed the outcome of the infection in a sample of 441 patients from the Hospital São José (Fortaleza-Ceará). The analyses and data presented were dependent on the information provided in the medical records of the included patients, which were randomly taken from the database, as long as they met the inclusion criteria and length of hospital stay defined in the study. The research was authorized by the human ethics committee and was characterized as a retrospective study. Correlations of the outcome with obesity, asthma, hypertension, and diabetes, as well as risk factors such as alcoholism, immunosuppression (HIV), and smoking, were revealed. There were no outcome correlations between mortality and obesity, hypertension, or diabetes. However, a positive correlation between mortality and asthma was observed. Among the risk factors, mortality from COVID-19 was not correlated with alcoholism. The absence of HIV-positive patients in the sample did not allow the evaluation of the parameter. However, an inverse correlation was observed between mortality from COIVD-19 and patients with a history of smoking. In a new and independent evaluation of this correlation, including 100 additional patients (50 smokers and 50 nonsmokers), the result confirmed a negative correlation between smoking and COVID-19 mortality. Next, bioinformatics tools were used to prospect epitopes in the tobacco mosaic virus cover protein (TMV-CP) that could induce the production of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Bioinformatics analysis predicted the presence of epitopes in TMV-CP, suggesting the possible production of anti-TMV-CP antibodies by B lymphocytes in smoking patients. TMV-CP antibodies, potentially present in smokers, could act as a proimmune agent against SARS-CoV-2 at an earlier post-infection stage. This hypothesis should be addressed in further studies. These data are useful for future studies evaluating COVID-19 in smokers.