Correspondence:
Zhihong Wang
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Huzhou Central Hospital,
Affiliated Central Hospital of Huzhou Normal University, Huzhou, 313003,
People’s Republic of China, E-mail:zhihong1017@126.com
Dear editor, we read with great interest the well written article by Dr
Kerget et al with the main objective of investigating the role of
TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio on patients with COVID-19
pneumonia[1]. The article pointed that TREM-1 and
TREM-2 have important role in inflammation and TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio was
higher in severe COVID-19 patients compared with moderate COVID-19
patients. We have certain comments to understand the conclusions of this
article.
To begin with the measurement of biochemical markers, triggering
receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is mainly express on
neutrophils and monocytes in a cell membrane-bound form. A soluble form
of TREM-1(sTREM-1), which lacks the cytoplasmic tail and transmembrane
part, was detected in the blood in recent studies. Since the authors
mentioned “serum TREM-1”, we were confused whether they detected
TREM-1 or sTREM-1. Regarding the demographic features, we wanted to know
more about the treatment and the kidney functions of the patients. As we
all known, treatment could affect the serum levels of sTREM-1 or other
inflammatory cytokines. Besides, it has been reported that TREM-1 seems
to be correlated with renal function and acute kidney injury following
COVID-19 infection has been described in recent literature. Lastly,
according to a previous report[2], lesions could
be assessed in four lung zones and the extent of ILD lesions was
semi-quantitatively scored based on the percentage of the lung
parenchyma involved in each zone. The COVID-19 pandemic is characterized
by an interstitial pneumonia. We are curious to see if high
TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio could predict the distribution of ILD. Furthermore,
we wanted to know if TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio in urine might be correlated
with clinical course in COVID-19 pneumonia since urine was obtained in
this article.
We would be glad to hear the opinion of the author on the points, to get
a more convincing conclusion.
Disclosure statement
The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
Data availability statement
None
Reference:
[1] KERGET F, KERGET B, İBA YıLMAZ S, et al. Evaluation of the
relationship between TREM-1/TREM-2 ratio and clinical course in COVID-19
pneumonia [J]. International journal of clinical practice, 2021,
e14697.
[2] GUNNARSSON R, AALøKKEN T M, MOLBERG Ø, et al. Prevalence and
severity of interstitial lung disease in mixed connective tissue
disease: a nationwide, cross-sectional study [J]. Annals of the
rheumatic diseases, 2012, 71(12): 1966-72.