Cytokine and chemokine profiles in the sera of COVID-19 patients with different stages of severity

•COVID-19 asymptomatic patients had high levels of IL-8.•IL-12, IL-2, IL-13, IL-17 and GM-CSF were undetectable in COVID-19 asymptomatic patients.•IL-6, IL-10, MIP-1α, MCP-1 and IP-10 are associated with COVID-19 disease progression.•IL-4 tends to decrease with COVID-19 disease progression.•SARS-CoV-2 is associated with the cytokine storm. COVID-19 is a viral infection that disturbs the host's immune system and causes an overproduction of cytokines leading to a cytokine storm. The present study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of 27 protein biomarkers to determine their association with COVID-19 disease severity. The serum levels of 89 patients with different degrees of COVID-19 disease severity [asymptomatic (n = 14), moderate (n = 14), severe (n = 30), and critical (n = 31)] and 14 healthy individuals were tested for a panel of 27 cytokines and chemokines using Luminex assay (27 Bio‑Plex Pro Human Cytokine, Bio-rad™). IL-12, IL-2 and IL-13, as well as IL-17 and GM-CSF were clearly undetectable in asymptomatic patients. IL-8 levels were higher in asymptomatic compared with other groups. Very high levels of IL-6, IL-10 and the chemokines MIP-1α, MCP-1 and IP10 were associated with disease progression, while IL-4 tends to decrease with disease severity. Our study provides more evidence that excessive cytokine synthesis is linked to the disease progression.