Disturbed lipid and amino acid metabolisms in COVID-19 patients

Mojgan Masoodi, Manuela Peschka, Stefan Schmiedel, Munif Haddad, Maike Frye, Coen Maas, Ansgar Lohse, Samuel Huber, Paulus Kirchhof, Jerzy-Roch Nofer, Thomas Renné

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Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is overwhelming the healthcare systems. Identification of systemic reactions underlying COVID-19 will lead to new biomarkers and therapeutic targets for monitoring and early intervention in this viral infection. We performed targeted metabolomics covering up to 630 metabolites within several key metabolic pathways in plasma samples of 20 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and 37 matched controls. Plasma metabolic signatures specifically differentiated severe COVID-19 from control patients. The identified metabolic signatures indicated distinct alterations in both lipid and amino acid metabolisms in COVID-19 compared to control patient plasma. Systems biology-based analyses identified sphingolipid, tryptophan, tyrosine, glutamine, arginine, and arachidonic acid metabolism as mostly impacted pathways in COVID-19 patients. Notably, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was significantly reduced in COVID-19 patients and GABA plasma levels allowed for stratification of COVID-19 patients with high sensitivity and specificity. The data reveal large metabolic disturbances in COVID-19 patients and suggest use of GABA as potential biomarker and therapeutic target for the infection.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-568
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Molecular Medicine
Volume100
Issue number4
Early online date22 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

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