Whole blood transciptome analysis in severe Covid-19 patients and healthy donors

The identification of COVID-19 patients with high-risk of severe disease is a challenge in routine care. We performed blood RNA-seq gene expression analyses in severe hospitalized patients compared to healthy donors. Supervised and unsupervised analyses revealed a high abundance of CD177, a specific neutrophil activation marker, contributing to the clustering of severe patients. Gene abundance correlated with high serum levels of CD177 in severe patients. These results highlight neutrophil activation as a hallmark of severe disease and CD177 assessment as a reliable prognostic marker for routine care. Overall design: Analysis of whole-blood gene expression profiles of 44 covid-19 patients and 10 Healthy donnors