ArticleBiochemistry and biophysics reports2021
Shorter leukocyte telomere length is associated with severity of COVID-19 infection.
Article in Biochemistry and biophysics reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telomere length in subjects with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2024Pooled it
- Is COVID-19 severity associated with telomere length? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Virus genes · 2023Pooled it
- Metabolic and Antioxidant Status, Telomere Lengths of Individuals With Prediabetes in Context of 3 Months of Insoluble Dietary Fibre Intake During the SARS-CoV2 Pandemic.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2026Trial
- Social Interactions and Cell Aging Dynamics in Postpartum Women.Biological research for nursing · 2026Article
- Telomere Length and COVID-19 Severity: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Across the Clinical Spectrum.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Telomere Length, Oxidative Stress Markers, and Related miRNAs in Non-Invasive Samples of Mild COVID-19 Cases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Gender-based differences in telomere attrition and long-term respiratory dysfunction in COVID-19 ICU survivors one year post-infection: implications for aging-associated pulmonary decline.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Association of leukocyte telomere length and HbA1c with post-COVID-19 syndrome in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional pilot study.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the Relationship between Telomere Length and Cognitive Changes in Post-COVID-19 Subjects.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Reliable Hallmarks and Biomarkers of Senescent Lymphocytes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Potential of Cell-Free DNA with a Special Focus on COVID-19 and Other Viral Infections.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Linking Pregnancy and Long-Term Health: The Impact of Cardiovascular Risk on Telomere Shortening in Pregnant Women.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Zebrafish models of COVID-19.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023Review
- Association between leukocyte telomere length and COVID-19 severity.The Egyptian journal of medical human genetics · 2023Article
- Association between COVID-19 and telomere length: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- Circulating biomarkers of inflammaging as potential predictors of COVID-19 severe outcomes.Mechanisms of ageing and development · 2022Review
- Analysis of Relative Average Length of Telomeres in Leukocytes of Women with COVID-19.Cytology and genetics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The infection by COVID-19 is a serious global public health problem. An efficient way to improve this disease's clinical management would be to characterize patients at higher risk of progressing to critically severe infection using prognostic biomarkers. The telomere length could be used for this purpose. Telomeres are responsible for controlling the number of maximum cell divisions. The telomere length is a biomarker of aging and several diseases. We aimed to compare leukocyte telomere length (LTL) between patients without COVID-19 and patients with different clinical severity of the infection. Were included 53 patients who underwent SARS-CoV-2 PCR divided in four groups. The first group was composed by patients with a negative diagnosis for COVID-19 (n = 12). The other three groups consisted of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 divided according to the severity of the disease: mild (n = 15), moderate (n = 17) and severe (n = 9). The LTL was determined by Q-PCR. The severe group had the shortest LTL, followed by the moderate group. The negative and mild groups showed no differences. There is an increase of patients with hypertension (p = 0.0099) and diabetes (p = 0.0067) in moderate and severe groups. Severe group was composed by older patients in comparison with the other three groups (p = 0.0083). Regarding sex, there was no significant difference between groups (p = 0.6279). In an ordinal regression model, only LTL and diabetes were significantly associated with disease severity. Shorter telomere length was significantly associated with the severity of COVID-19 infection, which can be useful as a biomarker or to better understand the SARS-CoV-2 pathophysiology.
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