The analysis will include:
- study the expression levels of molecules known to mediated viral infection, like the Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and genetic variants in these genes, which could be related to susceptibility to the viral infection and/or to the severity of the clinical course of the disease
- compare the frequency of genetic variants potentially related with COVID-19 susceptibility/severity in different subgroups of patients, ranging from individuals positive for the virus but asymptomatic to individuals affected by COVID-19 with ARDS requiring admission to ICU
- germline DNA analysis to search for genetic factors predisposing or protecting against severe pulmonary affection in COVID-19 infected participants. To this aim DNA will be analyzed by a GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study) approach by using the GSA Illumina chip. The obtained data will also be used to try to develop a polygenic risk score to stratify individuals with a particularly high or low risk for severe disease course
- explore the contribution of rare variants by studying the exome
- sepsis and ARDS biomarkers developed at ICH (e.g. PTX3, sIL-1R2, MSF) analysis to address their prognostic potential in Covid-19 patients
- PBMC analysis by FACS to investigate the immunophenotype and correlate it to the clinical outcome
- microbiota analysis of residual BAL and pharyngeal swab to evaluate whether different microbial or metabolome profiles are associated to worsen disease or to protection
- plasma and saliva/sputum test for anti-SARS-Cov-2 antibodies (IgM, IgG, IgE and IgA) and for microbiota analysis
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