Soluble urokinase plasminogen-activator receptor (suPAR) is a secreted protein associated with inflammation and proven its usefulness in triage/risk stratifications. This prospective study aimed to evaluate the utility of suPAR in comparison to C-reactive protein (CRP) in hospitalized moderate COVID-19 patients.This is a prospective comparative study during second pandemic wave. Serum suPAR level and CRP were measured serially in 31 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalized patients (20 males, 11 females) on day-1 (24-hours of admission), day-3 and day-5 using suPARnostic AUTO flex ELISA and Nephelometry (ThermoFischer) respectively. Schapiro Wilk test verified the data distribution; Wilcoxon signed rank test compared CRP and suPAR between deceased/alive subject and identified link between co-morbidity and COVID-19 severity.In our study, the mean age was 61.8 ranging from 28-82 with 9.7% (n=3/31) mortality rate. Deceased patients showed significant higher suPAR levels correlating with increasing severity from day 1 to 5 (p<0.016-0.006) than CRP (p=0.717). Patients with pre-existing co-morbidities showed significantly elevated suPAR levels on days 1-5, especially those with hypertension (HTN;p<0.03) and chronic kidney disease (CKD;p<0.001).In conclusion, levels of suPAR were higher in deceased patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19 during hospitalization and in patients with pre-existing co-morbid conditions, HTN and CKD. This preliminary study provides evidence suggesting that circulating suPAR can be a potential biomarker to assess the severity of COVID 19 compared to CRP.
Human microbiome studies have shown diversity to exist among different ethnic populations. However, studies pertaining to the microbial composition of CRC among the Indian population have not been well explored. We aimed to decipher the microbial signature in tumor tissues from North Indian CRC patients. Next-generation sequencing of tumor and adjacent tissue derived bacterial 16s rRNA V3-V4 hypevariable regions was performed to investigate the abundance of specific microbes. The expression profile analysis deciphered a decreased diversity among the tumor-associated microbial communities, and at the phyla level, Proteobacteria was differentially expressed in CRC tissues than adjacent normal. Further, DESeq2 normalization identified 4 out of 79 distinct species (p<0.005) only in CRC, Bacteroides massiliensis, Alistipes onderdonkii, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum, and Corynebacterium appendicis. Thus, our findings suggest the use of these microbial signatures as putative biomarkers that can distinguish CRC tissues from their adjacent normal, which may shed light on the pathogenesis of CRC.
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