Plasma proteomic and metabolomic characterization of COVID-19 survivors 6 months after discharge

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has gained prominence as a global pandemic. Studies have suggested that systemic alterations persist in a considerable proportion of COVID-19 patients after hospital discharge. We used proteomic and metabolomic approaches to analyze plasma samples obtained from 30 healthy subjects and 54 COVID-19 survivors 6 months after discharge from the hospital, including 30 non-severe and 24 severe patients. Through this analysis, we identified 1019 proteins and 1091 metabolites. The differentially expressed proteins and metabolites were then subjected to Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis. Among the patients evaluated, 41% of COVID-19 survivors reported at least one clinical symptom and 26.5% showed lung imaging abnormalities at 6 months after discharge. Plasma proteomics and metabolomics analysis showed that COVID-19 survivors differed from healthy control subjects in terms of the extracellular matrix, immune response, and hemostasis pathways. COVID-19 survivors also exhibited abnormal lipid metabolism, disordered immune response, and changes in pulmonary fibrosis-related proteins. COVID-19 survivors show persistent proteomic and metabolomic abnormalities 6 months after discharge from the hospital. Hence, the recovery period for COVID-19 survivors may be longer.

Using an untargeted metabolomics approach to analyze serum metabolites in COVID-19 patients with nucleic acid turning negative

“…COVID-19 infection causes immune response dysregulation, and the continuous abnormalities in LCFA and lipid metabolism showed a long-term immune response problem. The findings are similar to those of COVID-19 survivors 6 months after discharge (Li et al, 2022), indicated that the metabolic disturbance of lipid is associated with the long-term chronic discomfort of COVID-19 healers.…”

“…As a result, little is known about the metabolic status of COVID-19 patients in the late stages of infection. A recent proteomic and metabolomic study revealed that COIVD-19 caused persistent abnormalities after discharge ( Li et al, 2022 ), emphasizing the importance of a study focused on cured COIVD-19 patients.…”

Serum metabolomic abnormalities in survivors of non-severe COVID-19

“…MHFAs are active anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution mediators ( Serhan et al, 2008 ), two and five of MHFA species were respectively reduced in young and elder discharged patients, whose reduction demonstrates a potential deficit in the resolve of inflammatory in survivors of non-severe COVID-19. Li et al (2022) also found that two MHFA species were downregulated in plasma of severe and non-severe COVID-19 survivors 6 months after discharge from the hospital.…”

“…It was closely associated with fatigue or muscle weakness syndrome of the COVID-19 survivors in our cohort. The accumulation of TG was also found in the plasma of COVID-19 survivors after discharge ( Xu et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2022 ). Besides, elevated TG and reduced HDL-c might increase the risk of coronary heart diseases in elder survivors ( Krauss and Siri, 2004 ).…”

“…Moreover, similar metabolic abnormalities were also found in blood of in-hospital COVID-19 patients ( Mahmud and Garrett, 2020 ; Aggarwal et al, 2021 ), demonstrating that metabolic reprogramming induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection had not returned to normal at six months after discharge. The persistent metabolomic abnormalities in COVID-19 survivors may require a longer recovery period ( Li et al, 2022 ).

Figure 1 Abnormal serum metabolites associated with the history of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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