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Tahir ul Qamar M, Noor F, Guo YX, Zhu XT, Chen LL. Deep-HPI-pred: An R-Shiny applet for network-based classification and prediction of Host-Pathogen protein-protein interactions. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:316-329. [PMID: 38192372 PMCID: PMC10772389 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2023.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Host-pathogen interactions (HPIs) are vital in numerous biological activities and are intrinsically linked to the onset and progression of infectious diseases. HPIs are pivotal in the entire lifecycle of diseases: from the onset of pathogen introduction, navigating through the mechanisms that bypass host cellular defenses, to its subsequent proliferation inside the host. At the heart of these stages lies the synergy of proteins from both the host and the pathogen. By understanding these interlinking protein dynamics, we can gain crucial insights into how diseases progress and pave the way for stronger plant defenses and the swift formulation of countermeasures. In the framework of current study, we developed a web-based R/Shiny app, Deep-HPI-pred, that uses network-driven feature learning method to predict the yet unmapped interactions between pathogen and host proteins. Leveraging citrus and CLas bacteria training datasets as case study, we spotlight the effectiveness of Deep-HPI-pred in discerning Protein-protein interaction (PPIs) between them. Deep-HPI-pred use Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) models for HPI prediction, which is based on a comprehensive evaluation of topological features and neural network architectures. When subjected to independent validation datasets, the predicted models consistently surpassed a Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) of 0.80 in host-pathogen interactions. Remarkably, the use of Eigenvector Centrality as the leading topological feature further enhanced this performance. Further, Deep-HPI-pred also offers relevant gene ontology (GO) term information for each pathogen and host protein within the system. This protein annotation data contributes an additional layer to our understanding of the intricate dynamics within host-pathogen interactions. In the additional benchmarking studies, the Deep-HPI-pred model has proven its robustness by consistently delivering reliable results across different host-pathogen systems, including plant-pathogens (accuracy of 98.4% and 97.9%), human-virus (accuracy of 94.3%), and animal-bacteria (accuracy of 96.6%) interactomes. These results not only demonstrate the model's versatility but also pave the way for gaining comprehensive insights into the molecular underpinnings of complex host-pathogen interactions. Taken together, the Deep-HPI-pred applet offers a unified web service for both identifying and illustrating interaction networks. Deep-HPI-pred applet is freely accessible at its homepage: https://cbi.gxu.edu.cn/shiny-apps/Deep-HPI-pred/ and at github: https://github.com/tahirulqamar/Deep-HPI-pred.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Tahir ul Qamar
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Fatima Noor
- Integrative Omics and Molecular Modeling Laboratory, Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
| | - Yi-Xiong Guo
- National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
| | - Xi-Tong Zhu
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Ling-Ling Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
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Kori M, Kasavi C, Arga KY. Exploring COVID-19 Pandemic Disparities with Transcriptomic Meta-analysis from the Perspective of Personalized Medicine. J Microbiol 2024:10.1007/s12275-024-00154-9. [PMID: 38980578 DOI: 10.1007/s12275-024-00154-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Revised: 06/06/2024] [Accepted: 06/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
Infection with SARS-CoV2, which is responsible for COVID-19, can lead to differences in disease development, severity and mortality rates depending on gender, age or the presence of certain diseases. Considering that existing studies ignore these differences, this study aims to uncover potential differences attributable to gender, age and source of sampling as well as viral load using bioinformatics and multi-omics approaches. Differential gene expression analyses were used to analyse the phenotypic differences between SARS-CoV-2 patients and controls at the mRNA level. Pathway enrichment analyses were performed at the gene set level to identify the activated pathways corresponding to the differences in the samples. Drug repurposing analysis was performed at the protein level, focusing on host-mediated drug candidates to uncover potential therapeutic differences. Significant differences (i.e. the number of differentially expressed genes and their characteristics) were observed for COVID-19 at the mRNA level depending on the sample source, gender and age of the samples. The results of the pathway enrichment show that SARS-CoV-2 can be combated more effectively in the respiratory tract than in the blood samples. Taking into account the different sample sources and their characteristics, different drug candidates were identified. Evaluating disease prediction, prevention and/or treatment strategies from a personalised perspective is crucial. In this study, we not only evaluated the differences in COVID-19 from a personalised perspective, but also provided valuable data for further experimental and clinical efforts. Our findings could shed light on potential pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Medi Kori
- Institute of Health Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, 34752, Istanbul, Turkey.
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, 34752, Istanbul, Turkey.
| | - Ceyda Kasavi
- Department of Bioengineering, Marmara University, 34722, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Kazim Yalcin Arga
- Department of Bioengineering, Marmara University, 34722, Istanbul, Turkey
- Genetic and Metabolic Diseases Research and Investigation Center, Marmara University, 34722, Istanbul, Turkey
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3
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Armignacco R, Carlier N, Jouinot A, Birtolo MF, de Murat D, Tubach F, Hausfater P, Simon T, Gorochov G, Pourcher V, Beurton A, Goulet H, Manivet P, Bertherat J, Assié G. Whole blood transcriptome signature predicts severe forms of COVID-19: Results from the COVIDeF cohort study. Funct Integr Genomics 2024; 24:107. [PMID: 38772950 PMCID: PMC11108918 DOI: 10.1007/s10142-024-01359-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2024] [Revised: 04/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 05/23/2024]
Abstract
COVID-19 is associated with heterogeneous outcome. Early identification of a severe progression of the disease is essential to properly manage the patients and improve their outcome. Biomarkers reflecting an increased inflammatory response, as well as individual features including advanced age, male gender, and pre-existing comorbidities, are risk factors of severe COVID-19. Yet, these features show limited accuracy for outcome prediction. The aim was to evaluate the prognostic value of whole blood transcriptome at an early stage of the disease. Blood transcriptome of patients with mild pneumonia was profiled. Patients with subsequent severe COVID-19 were compared to those with favourable outcome, and a molecular predictor based on gene expression was built. Unsupervised classification discriminated patients who would later develop a COVID-19-related severe pneumonia. The corresponding gene expression signature reflected the immune response to the viral infection dominated by a prominent type I interferon, with IFI27 among the most over-expressed genes. A 48-genes transcriptome signature predicting the risk of severe COVID-19 was built on a training cohort, then validated on an external independent cohort, showing an accuracy of 81% for predicting severe outcome. These results identify an early transcriptome signature of severe COVID-19 pneumonia, with a possible relevance to improve COVID-19 patient management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberta Armignacco
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR8104, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, F-75014, Paris, France.
| | - Nicolas Carlier
- Service de Pneumologie, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, 75014, Paris, France
| | - Anne Jouinot
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR8104, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, F-75014, Paris, France
- Service d'Endocrinologie, Center for Rare Adrenal Diseases, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, 75014, Paris, France
| | | | - Daniel de Murat
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR8104, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, F-75014, Paris, France
| | - Florence Tubach
- Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie Et de Santé Publique, AP-HP, 1901, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Pierre Hausfater
- Emergency Department, APHP-Sorbonne Université, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, GRC-14 BIOSFAST, CIMI, UMR 1135, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Tabassome Simon
- Service de Pharmacologie, Plateforme de Recherche Clinique URC-CRC-CRB de L'Est Parisien, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Saint Antoine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Guy Gorochov
- Centre d'Immunologie Et Des Maladies Infectieuses (CIMI), Department of Immunology, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, Hôpital Pitié Salpêtrière, Groupe Hospitalo-Universitaire Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Valérie Pourcher
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hôpital Pitié Salpêtrière, Groupe Hospitalo-Universitaire Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Alexandra Beurton
- Service de Médecine Intensive Réanimation EOLE - Département R3S - Sorbonne, Université - Hôpital Universitaire Pitié - Salpêtrière - Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris - 83 Boulevard de L'Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France
- UMRS 1158 Inserm-Sorbonne Université "Neurophysiologie Respiratoire Expérimentale Et Clinique'' Intensive Care Unit, Hôpital Tenon, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Hélène Goulet
- Emergency Department, Hôpital Tenon, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Philippe Manivet
- INSERM UMR 1141 "NeuroDiderot", Université Paris Cité, FHU I2-D2, Paris, France
- AP-HP, DMU BioGem, Centre de Ressources Biologiques Biobank Lariboisière/Saint Louis (BB-0033-00064), Hôpital Lariboisière, Paris, France
| | - Jérôme Bertherat
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR8104, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, F-75014, Paris, France
- Service d'Endocrinologie, Center for Rare Adrenal Diseases, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, 75014, Paris, France
| | - Guillaume Assié
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS UMR8104, INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, F-75014, Paris, France.
- Service d'Endocrinologie, Center for Rare Adrenal Diseases, AP-HP, Hôpital Cochin, 75014, Paris, France.
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4
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Lei H. Quantitative and Longitudinal Assessment of Systemic Innate Immunity in Health and Disease Using a 2D Gene Model. Biomedicines 2024; 12:969. [PMID: 38790931 PMCID: PMC11117654 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12050969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2024] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Dysregulation of innate immunity is deeply involved in infectious and autoimmune diseases. For a better understanding of pathogenesis and improved management of these diseases, it is of vital importance to implement convenient monitoring of systemic innate immunity. Built upon our previous works on the host transcriptional response to infection in peripheral blood, we proposed a 2D gene model for the simultaneous assessment of two major components of systemic innate immunity, including VirSig as the signature of the host response to viral infection and BacSig as the signature of the host response to bacterial infection. The revelation of dysregulation in innate immunity by this 2D gene model was demonstrated with a wide variety of transcriptome datasets. In acute infection, distinctive patterns of VirSig and BacSig activation were observed in viral and bacterial infection. In comparison, both signatures were restricted to a defined range in the vast majority of healthy adults, regardless of age. In addition, BacSig showed significant elevation during pregnancy and an upward trend during development. In tuberculosis (TB), elevation of BacSig and VirSig was observed in a significant portion of active TB patients, and abnormal BacSig was also associated with a longer treatment course. In cystic fibrosis (CF), abnormal BacSig was observed in a subset of patients, and no overall change in BacSig abnormality was observed after the drug treatment. In systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD), significant elevation of VirSig and BacSig was observed in some patients, and treatment with a drug led to the further deviation of BacSig from the control level. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), positivity for the anti-Ro autoantibody was associated with significant elevation of VirSig in SLE patients, and the additive effect of VirSig/BacSig activation was also observed in SLE patients during pregnancy. Overall, these data demonstrated that the 2D gene model can be used to assess systemic innate immunity in health and disease, with the potential clinical applications including patient stratification, prescription of antibiotics, understanding of pathogenesis, and longitudinal monitoring of treatment response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongxing Lei
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China; ; Tel.: +86-010-8409-7276
- Cunji Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
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5
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Oliveira TT, Freitas JF, de Medeiros VPB, Xavier TJDS, Agnez-Lima LF. Integrated analysis of RNA-seq datasets reveals novel targets and regulators of COVID-19 severity. Life Sci Alliance 2024; 7:e202302358. [PMID: 38262689 PMCID: PMC10806258 DOI: 10.26508/lsa.202302358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 01/25/2024] Open
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, RNA-seq datasets were produced to investigate the virus-host relationship. However, much of these data remains underexplored. To improve the search for molecular targets and biomarkers, we performed an integrated analysis of multiple RNA-seq datasets, expanding the cohort and including patients from different countries, encompassing severe and mild COVID-19 patients. Our analysis revealed that severe COVID-19 patients exhibit overexpression of genes coding for proteins of extracellular exosomes, endomembrane system, and neutrophil granules (e.g., S100A9, LY96, and RAB1B), which may play an essential role in the cellular response to infection. Concurrently, these patients exhibit down-regulation of genes encoding components of the T cell receptor complex and nucleolus, including TP53, IL2RB, and NCL Finally, SPI1 may emerge as a central transcriptional factor associated with the up-regulated genes, whereas TP53, MYC, and MAX were associated with the down-regulated genes during COVID-19. This study identified targets and transcriptional factors, lighting on the molecular pathophysiology of syndrome coronavirus 2 infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thais Teixeira Oliveira
- https://ror.org/04wn09761 Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN, Natal, Brazil
| | - Júlia Firme Freitas
- https://ror.org/04wn09761 Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN, Natal, Brazil
| | | | - Thiago Jesus da Silva Xavier
- https://ror.org/04wn09761 Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN, Natal, Brazil
| | - Lucymara Fassarella Agnez-Lima
- https://ror.org/04wn09761 Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, UFRN, Natal, Brazil
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6
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Krupka S, Hoffmann A, Jasaszwili M, Dietrich A, Guiu-Jurado E, Klöting N, Blüher M. Consequences of COVID-19 on Adipose Tissue Signatures. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:2908. [PMID: 38474155 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25052908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2024] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Since the emergence of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in 2019, it has been crucial to investigate the causes of severe cases, particularly the higher rates of hospitalization and mortality in individuals with obesity. Previous findings suggest that adipocytes may play a role in adverse COVID-19 outcomes in people with obesity. The impact of COVID-19 vaccination and infection on adipose tissue (AT) is currently unclear. We therefore analyzed 27 paired biopsies of visceral and subcutaneous AT from donors of the Leipzig Obesity BioBank that have been categorized into three groups (1: no infection/no vaccination; 2: no infection but vaccinated; 3: infected and vaccinated) based on COVID-19 antibodies to spike (indicating vaccination) and/or nucleocapsid proteins. We provide additional insights into the impact of COVID-19 on AT biology through a comprehensive histological transcriptome and serum proteome analysis. This study demonstrates that COVID-19 infection is associated with smaller average adipocyte size. The impact of infection on gene expression was significantly more pronounced in subcutaneous than in visceral AT and mainly due to immune system-related processes. Serum proteome analysis revealed the effects of the infection on circulating adiponectin, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and carbonic anhydrase 5A (CA5A), which are all related to obesity and blood glucose abnormalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sontje Krupka
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG), Helmholtz Zentrum München, University of Leipzig and University Hospital Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anne Hoffmann
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG), Helmholtz Zentrum München, University of Leipzig and University Hospital Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mariami Jasaszwili
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Arne Dietrich
- Clinic for Visceral, Transplantation and Thorax and Vascular Surgery, University Hospital Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Esther Guiu-Jurado
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nora Klöting
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG), Helmholtz Zentrum München, University of Leipzig and University Hospital Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Matthias Blüher
- Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research (HI-MAG), Helmholtz Zentrum München, University of Leipzig and University Hospital Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Medical Department III-Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, University of Leipzig Medical Center, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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7
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Lei H. Hypoxia and Activation of Neutrophil Degranulation-Related Genes in the Peripheral Blood of COVID-19 Patients. Viruses 2024; 16:201. [PMID: 38399976 PMCID: PMC10891603 DOI: 10.3390/v16020201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Revised: 01/20/2024] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Severe COVID-19 is characterized by systematic hyper-inflammation and subsequent damage to various organs. Therefore, it is critical to trace this cascade of hyper-inflammation. Blood transcriptome has been routinely utilized in the interrogation of host immune response in COVID-19 and other infectious conditions. In this study, consensus gene dysregulation in the blood was obtained from 13 independent transcriptome studies on COVID-19. Among the up-regulated genes, the most prominent functional categories were neutrophil degranulation and cell cycle, which is clearly different from the classical activation of interferon signaling pathway in seasonal flu. As for the potential upstream causal factors of the atypical gene dysregulation, systemic hypoxia was further examined because it is much more widely reported in COVID-19 than that in seasonal flu. It was found that both physiological and pathological hypoxia can induce activation of neutrophil degranulation-related genes in the blood. Furthermore, COVID-19 patients with different requirement for oxygen intervention showed distinctive levels of gene expression related to neutrophil degranulation in the whole blood, which was validated in isolated neutrophils. Thus, activation of neutrophil degranulation-related genes in the blood of COVID-19 could be partially attributed to hypoxia. Interestingly, similar pattern was also observed in H1N1 infection (the cause of Spanish flu) and several other severe respiratory viral infections. As for the molecular mechanism, both HIF-dependent and HIF-independent pathways have been examined. Since the activation of neutrophil degranulation-related genes is highly correlated with disease severity in COVID-19, early detection of hypoxia and active intervention may prevent further activation of neutrophil degranulation-related genes and other harmful downstream hyper-inflammation. This common mechanism is applicable to current and future pandemic as well as the severe form of common respiratory infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongxing Lei
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China; ; Tel.: +86-010-84097276
- Cunji Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
- Center of Alzheimer’s Disease, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing 100069, China
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8
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Szakmany T, Fitzgerald E, Garlant HN, Whitehouse T, Molnar T, Shah S, Tong D, Hall JE, Ball GR, Kempsell KE. The 'analysis of gene expression and biomarkers for point-of-care decision support in Sepsis' study; temporal clinical parameter analysis and validation of early diagnostic biomarker signatures for severe inflammation andsepsis-SIRS discrimination. Front Immunol 2024; 14:1308530. [PMID: 38332914 PMCID: PMC10850284 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1308530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Early diagnosis of sepsis and discrimination from SIRS is crucial for clinicians to provide appropriate care, management and treatment to critically ill patients. We describe identification of mRNA biomarkers from peripheral blood leukocytes, able to identify severe, systemic inflammation (irrespective of origin) and differentiate Sepsis from SIRS, in adult patients within a multi-center clinical study. Methods Participants were recruited in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) from multiple UK hospitals, including fifty-nine patients with abdominal sepsis, eighty-four patients with pulmonary sepsis, forty-two SIRS patients with Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OOHCA), sampled at four time points, in addition to thirty healthy control donors. Multiple clinical parameters were measured, including SOFA score, with many differences observed between SIRS and sepsis groups. Differential gene expression analyses were performed using microarray hybridization and data analyzed using a combination of parametric and non-parametric statistical tools. Results Nineteen high-performance, differentially expressed mRNA biomarkers were identified between control and combined SIRS/Sepsis groups (FC>20.0, p<0.05), termed 'indicators of inflammation' (I°I), including CD177, FAM20A and OLAH. Best-performing minimal signatures e.g. FAM20A/OLAH showed good accuracy for determination of severe, systemic inflammation (AUC>0.99). Twenty entities, termed 'SIRS or Sepsis' (S°S) biomarkers, were differentially expressed between sepsis and SIRS (FC>2·0, p-value<0.05). Discussion The best performing signature for discriminating sepsis from SIRS was CMTM5/CETP/PLA2G7/MIA/MPP3 (AUC=0.9758). The I°I and S°S signatures performed variably in other independent gene expression datasets, this may be due to technical variation in the study/assay platform.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamas Szakmany
- Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
- Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Theatres Directorate, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Llantrisant, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Tony Whitehouse
- NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Mindelsohn Way Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - Tamas Molnar
- Critical Care Directorate, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Sanjoy Shah
- Critical Care Directorate, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Dong Ling Tong
- Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
| | - Judith E. Hall
- Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Graham R. Ball
- Medical Technology Research Facility, Anglia Ruskin University, Essex, United Kingdom
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McClain MT, Zhbannikov I, Satterwhite LL, Henao R, Giroux NS, Ding S, Burke TW, Tsalik EL, Nix C, Balcazar JP, Petzold EA, Shen X, Woods CW. Epigenetic and transcriptional responses in circulating leukocytes are associated with future decompensation during SARS-CoV-2 infection. iScience 2024; 27:108288. [PMID: 38179063 PMCID: PMC10765013 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
To elucidate host response elements that define impending decompensation during SARS-CoV-2 infection, we enrolled subjects hospitalized with COVID-19 who were matched for disease severity and comorbidities at the time of admission. We performed combined single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (scATAC-seq) on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at admission and compared subjects who improved from their moderate disease with those who later clinically decompensated and required invasive mechanical ventilation or died. Chromatin accessibility and transcriptomic immune profiles were markedly altered between the two groups, with strong signals in CD4+ T cells, inflammatory T cells, dendritic cells, and NK cells. Multiomic signature scores at admission were tightly associated with future clinical deterioration (auROC 1.0). Epigenetic and transcriptional changes in PBMCs reveal early, broad immune dysregulation before typical clinical signs of decompensation are apparent and thus may act as biomarkers to predict future severity in COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Micah T. McClain
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
- Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, USA
| | - Ilya Zhbannikov
- Department of Medicine, Clinical Research Unit, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Lisa L. Satterwhite
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Ricardo Henao
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Nicholas S. Giroux
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Shengli Ding
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Thomas W. Burke
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | | | - Christina Nix
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Jorge Prado Balcazar
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Elizabeth A. Petzold
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Xiling Shen
- Terasaki Institute for Biological Innovation, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
| | - Christopher W. Woods
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
- Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, USA
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10
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Huang B, Huang J, Chiang NH, Chen Z, Lui G, Ling L, Kwan MYW, Wong JSC, Mak PQ, Ling JWH, Lam ICS, Ng RWY, Wang X, Gao R, Hui DSC, Ma SL, Chan PKS, Tang NLS. Interferon response and profiling of interferon response genes in peripheral blood of vaccine-naive COVID-19 patients. Front Immunol 2024; 14:1315602. [PMID: 38268924 PMCID: PMC10806211 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1315602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction There is insufficient understanding on systemic interferon (IFN) responses during COVID-19 infection. Early reports indicated that interferon responses were suppressed by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and clinical trials of administration of various kinds of interferons had been disappointing. Expression of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in peripheral blood (better known as interferon score) has been a well-established bioassay marker of systemic IFN responses in autoimmune diseases. Therefore, with archival samples of a cohort of COVID-19 patients collected before the availability of vaccination, we aimed to better understand this innate immune response by studying the IFN score and related ISGs expression in bulk and single cell RNAs sequencing expression datasets. Methods In this study, we recruited 105 patients with COVID-19 and 30 healthy controls in Hong Kong. Clinical risk factors, disease course, and blood sampling times were recovered. Based on a set of five commonly used ISGs (IFIT1, IFIT2, IFI27, SIGLEC1, IFI44L), the IFN score was determined in blood leukocytes collected within 10 days after onset. The analysis was confined to those blood samples collected within 10 days after disease onset. Additional public datasets of bulk gene and single cell RNA sequencing of blood samples were used for the validation of IFN score results. Results Compared to the healthy controls, we showed that ISGs expression and IFN score were significantly increased during the first 10 days after COVID infection in majority of patients (71%). Among those low IFN responders, they were more commonly asymptomatic patients (71% vs 25%). 22 patients did not mount an overall significant IFN response and were classified as low IFN responders (IFN score < 1). However, early IFN score or ISGs level was not a prognostic biomarker and could not predict subsequent disease severity. Both IFI27 and SIGLEC1 were monocyte-predominant expressing ISGs and IFI27 were activated even among those low IFN responders as defined by IFN score. In conclusion, a substantial IFN response was documented in this cohort of COVID-19 patients who experience a natural infection before the vaccination era. Like innate immunity towards other virus, the ISGs activation was observed largely during the early course of infection (before day 10). Single-cell RNA sequencing data suggested monocytes were the cell-type that primarily accounted for the activation of two highly responsive ISGs (IFI44L and IFI27). Discussion As sampling time and age were two major confounders of ISG expression, they may account for contradicting observations among previous studies. On the other hand, the IFN score was not associated with the severity of the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baozhen Huang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jinghan Huang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Nim Hang Chiang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Zigui Chen
- Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Grace Lui
- Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Lowell Ling
- Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Mike Yat Wah Kwan
- Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Joshua Sung Chih Wong
- Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Phoebe Qiaozhen Mak
- Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Janet Wan Hei Ling
- Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ivan Cheuk San Lam
- Paediatric Infectious Disease Unit, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Rita Wai Yin Ng
- Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Xingyan Wang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ruonan Gao
- Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - David Shu-Cheong Hui
- Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Suk Ling Ma
- Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Paul K. S. Chan
- Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Nelson Leung Sang Tang
- Department of Chemical Pathology, and Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Science, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Hong Kong Branch of CAS Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics and KIZ/CUHK Joint Laboratory of Bioresources and Molecular Research in Common Diseases, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Functional Genomics and Biostatistical Computing Laboratory, CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China
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Moradi Marjaneh M, Challenger JD, Salas A, Gómez-Carballa A, Sivananthan A, Rivero-Calle I, Barbeito-Castiñeiras G, Foo CY, Wu Y, Liew F, Jackson HR, Habgood-Coote D, D'Souza G, Nichols SJ, Wright VJ, Levin M, Kaforou M, Thwaites RS, Okell LC, Martinón-Torres F, Cunnington AJ. Analysis of blood and nasal epithelial transcriptomes to identify mechanisms associated with control of SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the upper respiratory tract. J Infect 2023; 87:538-550. [PMID: 37863321 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinf.2023.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The amount of SARS-CoV-2 detected in the upper respiratory tract (URT viral load) is a key driver of transmission of infection. Current evidence suggests that mechanisms constraining URT viral load are different from those controlling lower respiratory tract viral load and disease severity. Understanding such mechanisms may help to develop treatments and vaccine strategies to reduce transmission. Combining mathematical modelling of URT viral load dynamics with transcriptome analyses we aimed to identify mechanisms controlling URT viral load. METHODS COVID-19 patients were recruited in Spain during the first wave of the pandemic. RNA sequencing of peripheral blood and targeted NanoString nCounter transcriptome analysis of nasal epithelium were performed and gene expression analysed in relation to paired URT viral load samples collected within 15 days of symptom onset. Proportions of major immune cells in blood were estimated from transcriptional data using computational differential estimation. Weighted correlation network analysis (adjusted for cell proportions) and fixed transcriptional repertoire analysis were used to identify associations with URT viral load, quantified as standard deviations (z-scores) from an expected trajectory over time. RESULTS Eighty-two subjects (50% female, median age 54 years (range 3-73)) with COVID-19 were recruited. Paired URT viral load samples were available for 16 blood transcriptome samples, and 17 respiratory epithelial transcriptome samples. Natural Killer (NK) cells were the only blood cell type significantly correlated with URT viral load z-scores (r = -0.62, P = 0.010). Twenty-four blood gene expression modules were significantly correlated with URT viral load z-score, the most significant being a module of genes connected around IFNA14 (Interferon Alpha-14) expression (r = -0.60, P = 1e-10). In fixed repertoire analysis, prostanoid-related gene expression was significantly associated with higher viral load. In nasal epithelium, only GNLY (granulysin) gene expression showed significant negative correlation with viral load. CONCLUSIONS Correlations between the transcriptional host response and inter-individual variations in SARS-CoV-2 URT viral load, revealed many molecular mechanisms plausibly favouring or constraining viral replication. Existing evidence corroborates many of these mechanisms, including likely roles for NK cells, granulysin, prostanoids and interferon alpha-14. Inhibition of prostanoid production and administration of interferon alpha-14 may be attractive transmission-blocking interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahdi Moradi Marjaneh
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK; Section of Virology, Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, London, UK.
| | - Joseph D Challenger
- Medical Research Council Centre for Global Infections Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Antonio Salas
- Unidade de Xenética, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and GenPoB Research Group, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IDIS), Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (SERGAS), Galicia, Spain; Genetics, Vaccines and Infections Research Group (GENVIP), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER-ES), Madrid, Spain
| | - Alberto Gómez-Carballa
- Unidade de Xenética, Instituto de Ciencias Forenses, Facultade de Medicina, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and GenPoB Research Group, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IDIS), Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (SERGAS), Galicia, Spain; Genetics, Vaccines and Infections Research Group (GENVIP), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER-ES), Madrid, Spain
| | - Abilash Sivananthan
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Irene Rivero-Calle
- Genetics, Vaccines and Infections Research Group (GENVIP), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER-ES), Madrid, Spain; Translational Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
| | - Gema Barbeito-Castiñeiras
- Servicio de Microbiología y Parasitología, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
| | - Cher Y Foo
- School of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Yue Wu
- Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Hospital, London, UK
| | - Felicity Liew
- National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Heather R Jackson
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Dominic Habgood-Coote
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Giselle D'Souza
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Samuel J Nichols
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Victoria J Wright
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Michael Levin
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Myrsini Kaforou
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Ryan S Thwaites
- National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Lucy C Okell
- Medical Research Council Centre for Global Infections Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Federico Martinón-Torres
- Genetics, Vaccines and Infections Research Group (GENVIP), Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER-ES), Madrid, Spain; Translational Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
| | - Aubrey J Cunnington
- Section of Paediatric Infectious Disease, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK; Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
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Potamias G, Gkoublia P, Kanterakis A. The two-stage molecular scenery of SARS-CoV-2 infection with implications to disease severity: An in-silico quest. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1251067. [PMID: 38077337 PMCID: PMC10699200 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1251067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The two-stage molecular profile of the progression of SARS-CoV-2 (SCOV2) infection is explored in terms of five key biological/clinical questions: (a) does SCOV2 exhibits a two-stage infection profile? (b) SARS-CoV-1 (SCOV1) vs. SCOV2: do they differ? (c) does and how SCOV2 differs from Influenza/INFL infection? (d) does low viral-load and (e) does COVID-19 early host response relate to the two-stage SCOV2 infection profile? We provide positive answers to the above questions by analyzing the time-series gene-expression profiles of preserved cell-lines infected with SCOV1/2 or, the gene-expression profiles of infected individuals with different viral-loads levels and different host-response phenotypes. Methods Our analytical methodology follows an in-silico quest organized around an elaborate multi-step analysis pipeline including: (a) utilization of fifteen gene-expression datasets from NCBI's gene expression omnibus/GEO repository; (b) thorough designation of SCOV1/2 and INFL progression stages and COVID-19 phenotypes; (c) identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and enriched biological processes and pathways that contrast and differentiate between different infection stages and phenotypes; (d) employment of a graph-based clustering process for the induction of coherent groups of networked genes as the representative core molecular fingerprints that characterize the different SCOV2 progression stages and the different COVID-19 phenotypes. In addition, relying on a sensibly selected set of induced fingerprint genes and following a Machine Learning approach, we devised and assessed the performance of different classifier models for the differentiation of acute respiratory illness/ARI caused by SCOV2 or other infections (diagnostic classifiers), as well as for the prediction of COVID-19 disease severity (prognostic classifiers), with quite encouraging results. Results The central finding of our experiments demonstrates the down-regulation of type-I interferon genes (IFN-1), interferon induced genes (ISGs) and fundamental innate immune and defense biological processes and molecular pathways during the early SCOV2 infection stages, with the inverse to hold during the later ones. It is highlighted that upregulation of these genes and pathways early after infection may prove beneficial in preventing subsequent uncontrolled hyperinflammatory and potentially lethal events. Discussion The basic aim of our study was to utilize in an intuitive, efficient and productive way the most relevant and state-of-the-art bioinformatics methods to reveal the core molecular mechanisms which govern the progression of SCOV2 infection and the different COVID-19 phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- George Potamias
- Computational Biomedicine Laboratory (CBML), Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece
| | - Polymnia Gkoublia
- Computational Biomedicine Laboratory (CBML), Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece
- Graduate Bioinformatics Program, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
| | - Alexandros Kanterakis
- Computational Biomedicine Laboratory (CBML), Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece
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13
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Ivanov SM, Tarasova OA, Poroikov VV. Transcriptome-based analysis of human peripheral blood reveals regulators of immune response in different viral infections. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1199482. [PMID: 37795081 PMCID: PMC10546413 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1199482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 09/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction There are difficulties in creating direct antiviral drugs for all viruses, including new, suddenly arising infections, such as COVID-19. Therefore, pathogenesis-directed therapy is often necessary to treat severe viral infections and comorbidities associated with them. Despite significant differences in the etiopathogenesis of viral diseases, in general, they are associated with significant dysfunction of the immune system. Study of common mechanisms of immune dysfunction caused by different viral infections can help develop novel therapeutic strategies to combat infections and associated comorbidities. Methods To identify common mechanisms of immune functions disruption during infection by nine different viruses (cytomegalovirus, Ebstein-Barr virus, human T-cell leukemia virus type 1, Hepatitis B and C viruses, human immunodeficiency virus, Dengue virus, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2), we analyzed the corresponding transcription profiles from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using the originally developed pipeline that include transcriptome data collection, processing, normalization, analysis and search for master regulators of several viral infections. The ten datasets containing transcription data from patients infected by nine viruses and healthy people were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus. The analysis of the data was performed by Genome Enhancer pipeline. Results We revealed common pathways, cellular processes, and master regulators for studied viral infections. We found that all nine viral infections cause immune activation, exhaustion, cell proliferation disruption, and increased susceptibility to apoptosis. Using network analysis, we identified PBMC receptors, representing proteins at the top of signaling pathways that may be responsible for the observed transcriptional changes and maintain the current functional state of cells. Discussion The identified relationships between some of them and virus-induced alteration of immune functions are new and have not been found earlier, e.g., receptors for autocrine motility factor, insulin, prolactin, angiotensin II, and immunoglobulin epsilon. Modulation of the identified receptors can be investigated as one of therapeutic strategies for the treatment of severe viral infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergey M. Ivanov
- Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
- Department of Bioinformatics, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Olga A. Tarasova
- Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
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Hurst JH, Mohan AA, Dalapati T, George IA, Aquino JN, Lugo DJ, Pfeiffer TS, Rodriguez J, Rotta AT, Turner NA, Burke TW, McClain MT, Henao R, DeMarco CT, Louzao R, Denny TN, Walsh KM, Xu Z, Mejias A, Ramilo O, Woods CW, Kelly MS. Differential host responses within the upper respiratory tract and peripheral blood of children and adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.07.31.23293337. [PMID: 37577568 PMCID: PMC10418569 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.31.23293337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
Age is among the strongest risk factors for severe outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We sought to evaluate associations between age and both mucosal and systemic host responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We profiled the upper respiratory tract (URT) and peripheral blood transcriptomes of 201 participants (age range of 1 week to 83 years), including 137 non-hospitalized individuals with mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and 64 uninfected individuals. Among uninfected children and adolescents, young age was associated with upregulation of innate and adaptive immune pathways within the URT, suggesting that young children are primed to mount robust mucosal immune responses to exogeneous respiratory pathogens. SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with broad induction of innate and adaptive immune responses within the URT of children and adolescents. Peripheral blood responses among SARS-CoV-2-infected children and adolescents were dominated by interferon pathways, while upregulation of myeloid activation, inflammatory, and coagulation pathways was observed only in adults. Systemic symptoms among SARS-CoV-2-infected subjects were associated with blunted innate and adaptive immune responses in the URT and upregulation of many of these same pathways within peripheral blood. Finally, within individuals, robust URT immune responses were correlated with decreased peripheral immune activation, suggesting that effective immune responses in the URT may promote local viral control and limit systemic immune activation and symptoms. These findings demonstrate that there are differences in immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 across the lifespan, including between young children and adolescents, and suggest that these varied host responses contribute to observed differences in the clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 infection by age. One Sentence Summary Age is associated with distinct upper respiratory and peripheral blood transcriptional responses among children and adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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15
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Banerjee U, Chunchanur S, R A, Balaji KN, Singh A, Chakravortty D, Chandra N. Systems-level profiling of early peripheral host-response landscape variations across COVID-19 severity states in an Indian cohort. Genes Immun 2023; 24:183-193. [PMID: 37438430 DOI: 10.1038/s41435-023-00210-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 06/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/14/2023]
Abstract
Host immune response to COVID-19 plays a significant role in regulating disease severity. Although big data analysis has provided significant insights into the host biology of COVID-19 across the world, very few such studies have been performed in the Indian population. This study utilizes a transcriptome-integrated network analysis approach to compare the immune responses between asymptomatic or mild and moderate-severe COVID-19 patients in an Indian cohort. An immune suppression phenotype is observed in the early stages of moderate-severe COVID-19 manifestation. A number of pathways are identified that play crucial roles in the host control of the disease such as the type I interferon response and classical complement pathway which show different activity levels across the severity spectrum. This study also identifies two transcription factors, IRF7 and ESR1, to be important in regulating the severity of COVID-19. Overall this study provides a deep understanding of the peripheral immune landscape in the COVID-19 severity spectrum in the Indian genetic background and opens up future research avenues to compare immune responses across global populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ushashi Banerjee
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
| | - Sneha Chunchanur
- Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bengaluru, India
| | - Ambica R
- Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Bengaluru, India
| | | | - Amit Singh
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
- Center for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
| | - Dipshikha Chakravortty
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
- Center for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
| | - Nagasuma Chandra
- Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
- Center for Biosystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
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16
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Shuaib M, Adroub S, Mourier T, Mfarrej S, Zhang H, Esau L, Alsomali A, Alofi FS, Ahmad AN, Shamsan A, Khogeer A, Hashem AM, Almontashiri NAM, Hala S, Pain A. Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid 203K/204R mutations on the inflammatory immune response in COVID-19 severity. Genome Med 2023; 15:54. [PMID: 37475040 PMCID: PMC10360309 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-023-01208-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The excessive inflammatory responses provoked by SARS-CoV-2 infection are critical factors affecting the severity and mortality of COVID-19. Previous work found that two adjacent co-occurring mutations R203K and G204R (KR) on the nucleocapsid (N) protein correlate with increased disease severity in COVID-19 patients. However, links with the host immune response remain unclear. METHODS Here, we grouped nasopharyngeal swab samples of COVID-19 patients into two cohorts based on the presence and absence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid KR mutations. We performed nasopharyngeal transcriptome analysis of age, gender, and ethnicity-matched COVID-19 patients infected with either SARS-CoV-2 with KR mutations in the N protein (KR patients n = 39) or with the wild-type N protein (RG patients n = 39) and compared to healthy controls (n = 34). The impact of KR mutation on immune response was further characterized experimentally by transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of virus-like-particle (VLP) incubated cells. RESULTS We observed markedly elevated expression of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and interferon-stimulated (ISGs) genes in the KR patients compared to RG patients. Using nasopharyngeal transcriptome data, we found significantly higher levels of neutrophils and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) ratio in KR patients than in the RG patients. Furthermore, transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of VLP incubated cells confirmed a similar hyper-inflammatory response mediated by the KR variant. CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate an unforeseen connection between nucleocapsid KR mutations and augmented inflammatory immune response in severe COVID-19 patients. These findings provide insights into how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 modulate host immune output and pathogenesis and may contribute to more efficient therapeutics and vaccine development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Shuaib
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
| | - Sabir Adroub
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Tobias Mourier
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Sara Mfarrej
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Huoming Zhang
- Bioscience Core Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Luke Esau
- Bioscience Core Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Afrah Alsomali
- Infectious Diseases Department, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah, MOH, Saudi Arabia
| | - Fadwa S Alofi
- Infectious Diseases Department, King Fahad Hospital, Madinah, MOH, Saudi Arabia
| | - Adeel Nazir Ahmad
- KAUST Health - Fakeeh Care, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Abbas Shamsan
- Dr. Suliman Al-Habib Medical Group, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Asim Khogeer
- Plan and Research Department, General Directorate of Health Affairs Makkah Region, Makkah, MOH, Saudi Arabia
| | - Anwar M Hashem
- Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Naif A M Almontashiri
- College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia
- Center for Genetics and Inherited Diseases, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunwarah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Sharif Hala
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
- Infectious Disease Research Department, King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arnab Pain
- Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, Bioscience Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
- International Institute for Zoonosis Control, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 001-0020, Japan.
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Yang Z, Zhang Q, Wu X, Hao S, Hao X, Jones E, Zhang Y, Qiu J, Xu L. Repurposing Niclosamide as a Novel Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Drug by Restricting Entry Protein CD147. Biomedicines 2023; 11:2019. [PMID: 37509657 PMCID: PMC10377517 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11072019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2023] [Revised: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the search for effective treatments has been limited. Furthermore, the rapid mutations of SARS-CoV-2 have posed challenges to existing vaccines and neutralizing antibodies, as they struggle to keep up with the increased viral transmissibility and immune evasion. However, there is hope in targeting the CD147-spike protein, which serves as an alternative point for the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into host cells. This protein has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for the development of drugs against COVID-19. Here, we demonstrate that the RNA-binding protein Human-antigen R (HuR) plays a crucial role in the post-transcriptional regulation of CD147 by directly binding to its 3'-untranslated region (UTR). We observed a decrease in CD147 levels across multiple cell lines upon HuR depletion. Furthermore, we identified that niclosamide can reduce CD147 by lowering the cytoplasmic translocation of HuR and reducing CD147 glycosylation. Moreover, our investigation revealed that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces an upregulation of CD147 in ACE2-expressing A549 cells, which can be effectively neutralized by niclosamide in a dose-dependent manner. Overall, our study unveils a novel regulatory mechanism of regulating CD147 through HuR and suggests niclosamide as a promising therapeutic option against COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Yang
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Qi Zhang
- Higuchi Biosciences Center, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Xiaoqing Wu
- Higuchi Biosciences Center, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
- The University of Kansas Cancer Center, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Siyuan Hao
- Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Xinbao Hao
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Elizabeth Jones
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Yuxia Zhang
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Jianming Qiu
- Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
| | - Liang Xu
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
- The University of Kansas Cancer Center, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
- Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
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18
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Chan AP, Siddique A, Desplat Y, Choi Y, Ranganathan S, Choudhary KS, Khalid MF, Diaz J, Bezney J, DeAscanis D, George Z, Wong S, Selleck W, Bowers J, Zismann V, Reining L, Highlander S, Brown K, Armstrong JR, Hakak Y, Schork NJ. A CRISPR-enhanced metagenomic NGS test to improve pandemic preparedness. CELL REPORTS METHODS 2023; 3:100463. [PMID: 37323571 PMCID: PMC10110940 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The lack of preparedness for detecting and responding to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogen (i.e., COVID-19) has caused enormous harm to public health and the economy. Testing strategies deployed on a population scale at day zero, i.e., the time of the first reported case, would be of significant value. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has such capabilities; however, it has limited detection sensitivity for low-copy-number pathogens. Here, we leverage the CRISPR-Cas9 system to effectively remove abundant sequences not contributing to pathogen detection and show that NGS detection sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 approaches that of RT-qPCR. The resulting sequence data can also be used for variant strain typing, co-infection detection, and individual human host response assessment, all in a single molecular and analysis workflow. This NGS work flow is pathogen agnostic and, therefore, has the potential to transform how large-scale pandemic response and focused clinical infectious disease testing are pursued in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnes P. Chan
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | | | | | - Yongwook Choi
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | | | | | | | - Josh Diaz
- Jumpcode Genomics, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
| | - Jon Bezney
- Jumpcode Genomics, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
| | | | | | - Shukmei Wong
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - William Selleck
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Jolene Bowers
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Victoria Zismann
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Lauren Reining
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Sarah Highlander
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | | | | | | | - Nicholas J. Schork
- The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), An Affiliate of the City of Hope National Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
- The University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA
- The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA 92037, USA
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Rombauts A, Bódalo Torruella M, Abelenda-Alonso G, Perera-Bel J, Ferrer-Salvador A, Acedo-Terrades A, Gabarrós-Subirà M, Oriol I, Gudiol C, Nonell L, Carratalà J. Dynamics of Gene Expression Profiling and Identification of High-Risk Patients for Severe COVID-19. Biomedicines 2023; 11:biomedicines11051348. [PMID: 37239019 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11051348] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection vary widely, from asymptomatic infection to the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and death. The host response elicited by SARS-CoV-2 plays a key role in determining the clinical outcome. We hypothesized that determining the dynamic whole blood transcriptomic profile of hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients and characterizing the subgroup that develops severe disease and ARDS would broaden our understanding of the heterogeneity in clinical outcomes. We recruited 60 hospitalized patients with RT-PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, among whom 19 developed ARDS. Peripheral blood was collected using PAXGene RNA tubes within 24 h of admission and on day 7. There were 2572 differently expressed genes in patients with ARDS at baseline and 1149 at day 7. We found a dysregulated inflammatory response in COVID-19 ARDS patients, with an increased expression of genes related to pro-inflammatory molecules and neutrophil and macrophage activation at admission, in addition to an immune regulation loss. This led, in turn, to a higher expression of genes related to reactive oxygen species, protein polyubiquitination, and metalloproteinases in the latter stages. Some of the most significant differences in gene expression found between patients with and without ARDS corresponded to long non-coding RNA involved in epigenetic control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Rombauts
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, 08908 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Gabriela Abelenda-Alonso
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, 08908 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Júlia Perera-Bel
- MARGenomics, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Anna Ferrer-Salvador
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Maria Gabarrós-Subirà
- MARGenomics, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Isabel Oriol
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, 08908 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Carlota Gudiol
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, 08908 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Medicine, Universitat de Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Lara Nonell
- MARGenomics, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Carratalà
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, 08908 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Medicine, Universitat de Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
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20
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Yang Z, Zhang Q, Wu X, Hao S, Hao X, Jones E, Zhang Y, Qiu J, Xu L. Repurposing niclosamide as a novel anti-SARS-Cov-2 drug by restricting entry protein CD147. RESEARCH SQUARE 2023:rs.3.rs-2763207. [PMID: 37090542 PMCID: PMC10120763 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2763207/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
Background The burst of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing the global COVID-19 pandemic. But until today only limited numbers of drugs are discovered to treat COVID-19 patients. Even worse, the rapid mutations of SARS-CoV-2 compromise the effectiveness of existing vaccines and neutralizing antibodies due to the increased viral transmissibility and immune escape. CD147-spike protein, one of the entries of SRAR-CoV-2 into host cells, has been reported as a promising therapeutic target for developing drugs against COVID-19. Methods CRISPR-Cas9 induced gene knockout, western blotting, tet-off protein overexpression, ribonucleoprotein IP and RNA-IP were used to confirm the regulation of HuR on mRNA of CD147. Regulation of niclosamide on HuR nucleo-translocation was assessed by immunofluorescence staining of cell lines, IHC staining of tissue of mouse model and western blotting. Finally, the suppression of niclosamide on SARS-CoV-2 infection induced CD147 was evaluated by ACE2-expressing A549 cells and western blotting. Results We first discovered a novel regulation mechanism of CD147 via the RNA-binding protein HuR. We found that HuR regulates CD147 post-transcription by directly bound to its 3'-UTR. The loss of HuR reduced CD147 in multiple cell lines. Niclosamide inhibited CD147 function by blocking HuR cytoplasmic translocation and diminishing CD147 glycosylation. SARS-CoV-2 infection induced CD147 in ACE2-expressing A549 cells, which could be neutralized by niclosamide in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion Together, our study reveals a novel regulation mechanism of CD147 and niclosamide can be repurposed as an effective COVID-19 drug by targeting the virus entry, CD147-spike protein.
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21
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Classification of COVID-19 Patients into Clinically Relevant Subsets by a Novel Machine Learning Pipeline Using Transcriptomic Features. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24054905. [PMID: 36902333 PMCID: PMC10002748 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24054905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2023] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The persistent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and heterogeneity in disease manifestations point to a need for innovative approaches to identify drivers of immune pathology and predict whether infected patients will present with mild/moderate or severe disease. We have developed a novel iterative machine learning pipeline that utilizes gene enrichment profiles from blood transcriptome data to stratify COVID-19 patients based on disease severity and differentiate severe COVID cases from other patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure. The pattern of gene module enrichment in COVID-19 patients overall reflected broad cellular expansion and metabolic dysfunction, whereas increased neutrophils, activated B cells, T-cell lymphopenia, and proinflammatory cytokine production were specific to severe COVID patients. Using this pipeline, we also identified small blood gene signatures indicative of COVID-19 diagnosis and severity that could be used as biomarker panels in the clinical setting.
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22
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Chan KR, Koh CWT, Ng DHL, Qin S, Ooi JSG, Ong EZ, Zhang SLX, Sam H, Kalimuddin S, Low JGH, Ooi EE. Early peripheral blood MCEMP1 and HLA-DRA expression predicts COVID-19 prognosis. EBioMedicine 2023; 89:104472. [PMID: 36801619 PMCID: PMC9934388 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Revised: 01/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Mass vaccination has dramatically reduced the incidence of severe COVID-19, with most cases now presenting as self-limiting upper respiratory tract infections. However, those with co-morbidities, the elderly and immunocompromised, as well as the unvaccinated, remain disproportionately vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and its sequelae. Furthermore, as the effectiveness of vaccination wanes with time, immune escape SARS-CoV-2 variants could emerge to cause severe COVID-19. Reliable prognostic biomarkers for severe disease could be used as early indicator of re-emergence of severe COVID-19 as well as for triaging of patients for antiviral therapy. METHODS We performed a systematic review and re-analysis of 7 publicly available datasets, analysing a total of 140 severe and 181 mild COVID-19 patients, to determine the most consistent differentially regulated genes in peripheral blood of severe COVID-19 patients. In addition, we included an independent cohort where blood transcriptomics of COVID-19 patients were prospectively and longitudinally monitored previously, to track the time in which these gene expression changes occur before nadir of respiratory function. Single cell RNA-sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from publicly available datasets was then used to determine the immune cell subsets involved. FINDINGS The most consistent differentially regulated genes in peripheral blood of severe COVID-19 patients were MCEMP1, HLA-DRA and ETS1 across the 7 transcriptomics datasets. Moreover, we found significantly heightened MCEMP1 and reduced HLA-DRA expression as early as four days before the nadir of respiratory function, and the differential expression of MCEMP1 and HLA-DRA occurred predominantly in CD14+ cells. The online platform which we developed is publicly available at https://kuanrongchan-covid19-severity-app-t7l38g.streamlitapp.com/, for users to query gene expression differences between severe and mild COVID-19 patients in these datasets. INTERPRETATION Elevated MCEMP1 and reduced HLA-DRA gene expression in CD14+ cells during the early phase of disease are prognostic of severe COVID-19. FUNDING K.R.C is funded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore under the Open Fund Individual Research Grant (MOH-000610). E.E.O. is funded by the NMRC Senior Clinician-Scientist Award (MOH-000135-00). J.G.H.L. is funded by the NMRC under the Clinician-Scientist Award (NMRC/CSAINV/013/2016-01). S.K. is funded by the NMRC under the Transition Award. This study was sponsored in part by a generous gift from The Hour Glass.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kuan Rong Chan
- Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
| | - Clara W T Koh
- Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
| | - Dorothy H L Ng
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
| | - Shijie Qin
- Key Laboratory of Pathogen Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Justin S G Ooi
- Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
| | - Eugenia Z Ong
- Key Laboratory of Pathogen Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Summer L X Zhang
- Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
| | - Huizhen Sam
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
| | - Shirin Kalimuddin
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
| | - Jenny G H Low
- Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Department of Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore
| | - Eng Eong Ooi
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, Singapore; Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore
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23
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Zhang Z, Sauerwald N, Cappuccio A, Ramos I, Nair VD, Nudelman G, Zaslavsky E, Ge Y, Gaitas A, Ren H, Brockman J, Geis J, Ramalingam N, King D, McClain MT, Woods CW, Henao R, Burke TW, Tsalik EL, Goforth CW, Lizewski RA, Lizewski SE, Weir DL, Letizia AG, Sealfon SC, Troyanskaya OG. Blood RNA alternative splicing events as diagnostic biomarkers for infectious disease. CELL REPORTS METHODS 2023; 3:100395. [PMID: 36936082 PMCID: PMC10014279 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Assays detecting blood transcriptome changes are studied for infectious disease diagnosis. Blood-based RNA alternative splicing (AS) events, which have not been well characterized in pathogen infection, have potential normalization and assay platform stability advantages over gene expression for diagnosis. Here, we present a computational framework for developing AS diagnostic biomarkers. Leveraging a large prospective cohort of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and whole-blood RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data, we identify a major functional AS program switch upon viral infection. Using an independent cohort, we demonstrate the improved accuracy of AS biomarkers for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis compared with six reported transcriptome signatures. We then optimize a subset of AS-based biomarkers to develop microfluidic PCR diagnostic assays. This assay achieves nearly perfect test accuracy (61/62 = 98.4%) using a naive principal component classifier, significantly more accurate than a gene expression PCR assay in the same cohort. Therefore, our RNA splicing computational framework enables a promising avenue for host-response diagnosis of infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zijun Zhang
- Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Division of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Natalie Sauerwald
- Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA
| | - Antonio Cappuccio
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Irene Ramos
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Venugopalan D. Nair
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - German Nudelman
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Elena Zaslavsky
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Yongchao Ge
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Angelo Gaitas
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Hui Ren
- Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | - Joel Brockman
- Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | - Jennifer Geis
- Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | | | - David King
- Fluidigm Corporation, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA
| | - Micah T. McClain
- Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Christopher W. Woods
- Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Ricardo Henao
- Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Thomas W. Burke
- Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Ephraim L. Tsalik
- Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | | | | | | | - Dawn L. Weir
- Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, MD, USA
| | | | - Stuart C. Sealfon
- Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Olga G. Troyanskaya
- Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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24
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Abstract
The continued emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants is one of several factors that may cause false-negative viral PCR test results. Such tests are also susceptible to false-positive results due to trace contamination from high viral titer samples. Host immune response markers provide an orthogonal indication of infection that can mitigate these concerns when combined with direct viral detection. Here, we leverage nasopharyngeal swab RNA-seq data from patients with COVID-19, other viral acute respiratory illnesses, and nonviral conditions (n = 318) to develop support vector machine classifiers that rely on a parsimonious 2-gene host signature to diagnose COVID-19. We find that optimal classifiers include an interferon-stimulated gene that is strongly induced in COVID-19 compared with nonviral conditions, such as IFI6, and a second immune-response gene that is more strongly induced in other viral infections, such as GBP5. The IFI6+GBP5 classifier achieves an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) greater than 0.9 when evaluated on an independent RNA-seq cohort (n = 553). We further provide proof-of-concept demonstration that the classifier can be implemented in a clinically relevant RT-qPCR assay. Finally, we show that its performance is robust across common SARS-CoV-2 variants and is unaffected by cross-contamination, demonstrating its utility for improved accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostics. IMPORTANCE In this work, we study upper respiratory tract gene expression to develop and validate a 2-gene host-based COVID-19 diagnostic classifier and then demonstrate its implementation in a clinically practical qPCR assay. We find that the host classifier has utility for mitigating false-negative results, for example due to SARS-CoV-2 variants harboring mutations at primer target sites, and for mitigating false-positive viral PCR results due to laboratory cross-contamination. Both types of error carry serious consequences of either unrecognized viral transmission or unnecessary isolation and contact tracing. This work is directly relevant to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic given the continued emergence of viral variants and the continued challenges of false-positive PCR assays. It also suggests the feasibility of pan-respiratory virus host-based diagnostics that would have value in congregate settings, such as hospitals and nursing homes, where unrecognized respiratory viral transmission is of particular concern.
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25
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Hasankhani A, Bahrami A, Tavakoli-Far B, Iranshahi S, Ghaemi F, Akbarizadeh MR, Amin AH, Abedi Kiasari B, Mohammadzadeh Shabestari A. The role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors in the modulation of hyperinflammation induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection: A perspective for COVID-19 therapy. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1127358. [PMID: 36875108 PMCID: PMC9981974 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1127358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe respiratory disease caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that affects the lower and upper respiratory tract in humans. SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with the induction of a cascade of uncontrolled inflammatory responses in the host, ultimately leading to hyperinflammation or cytokine storm. Indeed, cytokine storm is a hallmark of SARS-CoV-2 immunopathogenesis, directly related to the severity of the disease and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Considering the lack of any definitive treatment for COVID-19, targeting key inflammatory factors to regulate the inflammatory response in COVID-19 patients could be a fundamental step to developing effective therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Currently, in addition to well-defined metabolic actions, especially lipid metabolism and glucose utilization, there is growing evidence of a central role of the ligand-dependent nuclear receptors and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) including PPARα, PPARβ/δ, and PPARγ in the control of inflammatory signals in various human inflammatory diseases. This makes them attractive targets for developing therapeutic approaches to control/suppress the hyperinflammatory response in patients with severe COVID-19. In this review, we (1) investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanisms mediated by PPARs and their ligands during SARS-CoV-2 infection, and (2) on the basis of the recent literature, highlight the importance of PPAR subtypes for the development of promising therapeutic approaches against the cytokine storm in severe COVID-19 patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aliakbar Hasankhani
- Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
| | - Abolfazl Bahrami
- Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
- Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
| | - Bahareh Tavakoli-Far
- Dietary Supplements and Probiotic Research Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
| | - Setare Iranshahi
- School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshty University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Farnaz Ghaemi
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Majid Reza Akbarizadeh
- Department of Pediatric, School of Medicine, Amir al momenin Hospital, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
| | - Ali H. Amin
- Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | - Bahman Abedi Kiasari
- Virology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Mohammadzadeh Shabestari
- Department of Dental Surgery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
- Khorasan Covid-19 Scientific Committee, Mashhad, Iran
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26
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Pagani L, Chinello C, Risca G, Capitoli G, Criscuolo L, Lombardi A, Ungaro R, Mangioni D, Piga I, Muscatello A, Blasi F, Favalli A, Martinovic M, Gori A, Bandera A, Grifantini R, Magni F. Plasma Proteomic Variables Related to COVID-19 Severity: An Untargeted nLC-MS/MS Investigation. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24043570. [PMID: 36834989 PMCID: PMC9962231 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24043570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection leads to a wide range of clinical manifestations and determines the need for personalized and precision medicine. To better understand the biological determinants of this heterogeneity, we explored the plasma proteome of 43 COVID-19 patients with different outcomes by an untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry approach. The comparison between asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic subjects (MILDs), and hospitalised patients in need of oxygen support therapy (SEVEREs) highlighted 29 proteins emerged as differentially expressed: 12 overexpressed in MILDs and 17 in SEVEREs. Moreover, a supervised analysis based on a decision-tree recognised three proteins (Fetuin-A, Ig lambda-2chain-C-region, Vitronectin) that are able to robustly discriminate between the two classes independently from the infection stage. In silico functional annotation of the 29 deregulated proteins pinpointed several functions possibly related to the severity; no pathway was associated exclusively to MILDs, while several only to SEVEREs, and some associated to both MILDs and SEVEREs; SARS-CoV-2 signalling pathway was significantly enriched by proteins up-expressed in SEVEREs (SAA1/2, CRP, HP, LRG1) and in MILDs (GSN, HRG). In conclusion, our analysis could provide key information for 'proteomically' defining possible upstream mechanisms and mediators triggering or limiting the domino effect of the immune-related response and characterizing severe exacerbations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Pagani
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Unit, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
| | - Clizia Chinello
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Unit, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
- Correspondence: ; Tel.:+39-333-5905725
| | - Giulia Risca
- Bicocca Bioinformatics Biostatistics and Bioimaging Centre—B4, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
| | - Giulia Capitoli
- Bicocca Bioinformatics Biostatistics and Bioimaging Centre—B4, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
| | - Lucrezia Criscuolo
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Unit, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
| | - Andrea Lombardi
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Riccardo Ungaro
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Davide Mangioni
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Isabella Piga
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Unit, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
| | - Antonio Muscatello
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Francesco Blasi
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
- Respiratory Unit and Cystic Fibrosis Adult Center, Internal Medicine Department, Foundation IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Andrea Favalli
- Istituto Nazionale di Genetica Molecolare (INGM), 20122 Milano, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Gori
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Alessandra Bandera
- Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
- Infectious Diseases Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation, 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Renata Grifantini
- Istituto Nazionale di Genetica Molecolare (INGM), 20122 Milano, Italy
| | - Fulvio Magni
- Proteomics and Metabolomics Unit, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20854 Vedano al Lambro, Italy
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Krishnamoorthy P, Raj AS, Kumar H. Machine learning-driven blood transcriptome-based discovery of SARS-CoV-2 specific severity biomarkers. J Med Virol 2023; 95:e28488. [PMID: 36625381 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by rapidly evolving variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), continues to be a global health threat. SARS-CoV-2 infection symptoms often intersect with other nonsevere respiratory infections, making early diagnosis challenging. There is an urgent need for early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to predict severity and reduce mortality when a sudden outbreak occurs. This study implemented a novel approach of integrating bioinformatics and machine learning algorithms over publicly available clinical COVID-19 transcriptome data sets. The robust 7-gene biomarker identified through this analysis can not only discriminate SARS-CoV-2 associated acute respiratory illness (ARI) from other types of ARIs but also can discriminate severe COVID-19 patients from nonsevere COVID-19 patients. Validation of the 7-gene biomarker in an independent blood transcriptome data set of longitudinal analysis of COVID-19 patients across various stages of the disease showed that the dysregulation of the identified biomarkers during severe disease is restored during recovery, showing their prognostic potential. The blood biomarkers identified in this study can serve as potential diagnostic candidates and help reduce COVID-19-associated mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pandikannan Krishnamoorthy
- Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Disease Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
| | - Athira S Raj
- Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Disease Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
| | - Himanshu Kumar
- Laboratory of Immunology and Infectious Disease Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.,Laboratory of Host Defense, WPI Immunology, Frontier Research Centre, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
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28
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Wismans LV, Lopuhaä B, de Koning W, Moeniralam H, van Oosterhout M, Ambarus C, Hofman FN, Kuiken T, Endeman H, Mustafa DAM, von der Thüsen JH. Increase of mast cells in COVID-19 pneumonia may contribute to pulmonary fibrosis and thrombosis. Histopathology 2023; 82:407-419. [PMID: 36366933 PMCID: PMC9877713 DOI: 10.1111/his.14838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 11/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
AIMS Lung tissue from COVID-19 patients shares similar histomorphological features with chronic lung allograft disease, also suggesting activation of autoimmune-related pathways in COVID-19. To more clearly understand the underlying spectrum of pathophysiology in COVID-19 pneumonia, we analysed mRNA expression of autoimmune-related genes in post-mortem lung tissue from COVID-19 patients. METHODS AND RESULTS Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded lung tissue samples of 18 COVID-19 patients and eight influenza patients were used for targeted gene expression profiling using NanoString technology. Multiplex immunofluorescence for tryptase and chymase was applied for validation. Genes related to mast cells were significantly increased in COVID-19. This finding was strengthened by multiplex immunofluorescence also showing a significant increase of tryptase- and chymase-positive cells in COVID-19. Furthermore, receptors for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and pro-platelet basic protein (PPBP) were up-regulated in COVID-19 compared to influenza. Genes associated with Type I interferon signalling showed a significant correlation to detected SARS-CoV2 pathway-related genes. The comparison of lung tissue samples from both groups based on the presence of histomorphological features indicative of acute respiratory distress syndrome did not result in finding any specific gene or pathways. CONCLUSION Two separate means of measuring show a significant increase of mast cells in SARS-CoV-2-infected lung tissue compared to influenza. Additionally, several genes involved in fibrosis and thrombosis, among which are RAGE and PPBP, are up-regulated in COVID-19. As mast cells are able to induce thrombosis and fibrosis, they may play an important role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonoor V Wismans
- Present address:
Department of SurgeryErasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands,The Tumor Immuno‐Pathology Laboratory, Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Boaz Lopuhaä
- Present address:
Department of SurgeryErasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands,Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Willem de Koning
- The Tumor Immuno‐Pathology Laboratory, Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands,Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, Department of PathologyErasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Hazra Moeniralam
- Department of Internal Medicine and Intensive CareSt. Antonius HospitalNieuwegeinthe Netherlands
| | | | - Carmen Ambarus
- Department of Pathology DNASt. Antonius HospitalNieuwegeinthe Netherlands
| | - Frederik N Hofman
- Department of Cardiothoracic SurgerySt. Antonius HospitalNieuwegeinthe Netherlands
| | - Thijs Kuiken
- Department of ViroscienceErasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Henrik Endeman
- Department of Adult Intensive CareErasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Dana A M Mustafa
- The Tumor Immuno‐Pathology Laboratory, Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands,Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
| | - Jan H von der Thüsen
- Department of PathologyJosephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical CenterRotterdamthe Netherlands
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29
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Lim FY, Kim SY, Kulkarni KN, Blazevic RL, Kimball LE, Lea HG, Haack AJ, Gower MS, Stevens-Ayers T, Starita LM, Boeckh M, Schiffer JT, Hyrien O, Theberge AB, Waghmare A. Longitudinal home self-collection of capillary blood using homeRNA correlates interferon and innate viral defense pathways with SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.01.24.23284913. [PMID: 37034678 PMCID: PMC10081427 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.24.23284913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/13/2023]
Abstract
Blood transcriptional profiling is a powerful tool to evaluate immune responses to infection; however, blood collection via traditional phlebotomy remains a barrier to precise characterization of the immune response in dynamic infections (e.g., respiratory viruses). Here we present an at-home self-collection methodology, homeRNA, to study the host transcriptional response during acute SARS-CoV-2 infections. This method uniquely enables high frequency measurement of the host immune kinetics in non-hospitalized adults during the acute and most dynamic stage of their infection. COVID-19+ and healthy participants self-collected blood every other day for two weeks with daily nasal swabs and symptom surveys to track viral load kinetics and symptom burden, respectively. While healthy uninfected participants showed remarkably stable immune kinetics with no significant dynamic genes, COVID-19+ participants, on the contrary, depicted a robust response with over 418 dynamic genes associated with interferon and innate viral defense pathways. When stratified by vaccination status, we detected distinct response signatures between unvaccinated and breakthrough (vaccinated) infection subgroups; unvaccinated individuals portrayed a response repertoire characterized by higher innate antiviral responses, interferon signaling, and cytotoxic lymphocyte responses while breakthrough infections portrayed lower levels of interferon signaling and enhanced early cell-mediated response. Leveraging cross-platform longitudinal sampling (nasal swabs and blood), we observed that IFI27, a key viral response gene, tracked closely with SARS-CoV-2 viral clearance in individual participants. Taken together, these results demonstrate that at-home sampling can capture key host antiviral responses and facilitate frequent longitudinal sampling to detect transient host immune kinetics during dynamic immune states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Yun Lim
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Soo-Young Kim
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Karisma N. Kulkarni
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Rachel L. Blazevic
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Louise E. Kimball
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Hannah G. Lea
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Amanda J. Haack
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Maia. S. Gower
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Terry Stevens-Ayers
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Lea M. Starita
- Brotman Baty Institute, University of Washington, Seattle
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Michael Boeckh
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Department of Medicine, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Joshua T. Schiffer
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Department of Medicine, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Ollivier Hyrien
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Ashleigh B. Theberge
- Department of Chemistry, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Department of Urology, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
| | - Alpana Waghmare
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute; Seattle, Washington, U.S.A
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30
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Genome-wide characterization of alternative splicing in blood cells of COVID-19 and respiratory infections of relevance. Virol Sin 2023; 38:309-312. [PMID: 36690184 PMCID: PMC9854207 DOI: 10.1016/j.virs.2023.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
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31
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Xenos A, Malod-Dognin N, Zambrana C, Pržulj N. Integrated Data Analysis Uncovers New COVID-19 Related Genes and Potential Drug Re-Purposing Candidates. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24021431. [PMID: 36674947 PMCID: PMC9863794 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24021431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is an acute and rapidly evolving global health crisis. To better understand this disease's molecular basis and design therapeutic strategies, we built upon the recently proposed concept of an integrated cell, iCell, fusing three omics, tissue-specific human molecular interaction networks. We applied this methodology to construct infected and control iCells using gene expression data from patient samples and three cell lines. We found large differences between patient-based and cell line-based iCells (both infected and control), suggesting that cell lines are ill-suited to studying this disease. We compared patient-based infected and control iCells and uncovered genes whose functioning (wiring patterns in iCells) is altered by the disease. We validated in the literature that 18 out of the top 20 of the most rewired genes are indeed COVID-19-related. Since only three of these genes are targets of approved drugs, we applied another data fusion step to predict drugs for re-purposing. We confirmed with molecular docking that the predicted drugs can bind to their predicted targets. Our most interesting prediction is artenimol, an antimalarial agent targeting ZFP62, one of our newly identified COVID-19-related genes. This drug is a derivative of artemisinin drugs that are already under clinical investigation for their potential role in the treatment of COVID-19. Our results demonstrate further applicability of the iCell framework for integrative comparative studies of human diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandros Xenos
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Computer Science, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Noël Malod-Dognin
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Carme Zambrana
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Computer Science, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Nataša Pržulj
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
- Correspondence:
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A two-gene marker for the two-tiered innate immune response in COVID-19 patients. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0280392. [PMID: 36649304 PMCID: PMC9844909 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
For coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic disease characterized by strong immune dysregulation in severe patients, convenient and efficient monitoring of the host immune response is critical. Human hosts respond to viral and bacterial infections in different ways, the former is characterized by the activation of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) such as IFI27, while the latter is characterized by the activation of anti-bacterial associated genes (ABGs) such as S100A12. This two-tiered innate immune response has not been examined in COVID-19. In this study, the activation patterns of this two-tiered innate immune response represented by IFI27 and S100A12 were explored based on 1421 samples from 17 transcriptome datasets derived from the blood of COVID-19 patients and relevant controls. It was found that IFI27 activation occurred in most of the symptomatic patients and displayed no correlation with disease severity, while S100A12 activation was more restricted to patients under severe and critical conditions with a stepwise activation pattern. In addition, most of the S100A12 activation was accompanied by IFI27 activation. Furthermore, the activation of IFI27 was most pronounced within the first week of symptom onset, but generally waned after 2-3 weeks. On the other hand, the activation of S100A12 displayed no apparent correlation with disease duration and could last for several months in certain patients. These features of the two-tiered innate immune response can further our understanding on the disease mechanism of COVID-19 and may have implications to the clinical triage. Development of a convenient two-gene protocol for the routine serial monitoring of this two-tiered immune response will be a valuable addition to the existing laboratory tests.
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33
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Kim JA, Kim SH, Seo JS, Noh H, Jeong H, Kim J, Jeon D, Kim JJ, On D, Yoon S, Lee SG, Lee YW, Jang HJ, Park IH, Oh J, Seok SH, Lee YJ, Hong SM, An SH, Bae JY, Choi JA, Kim SY, Kim YB, Hwang JY, Lee HJ, Kim HB, Jeong DG, Song D, Song M, Park MS, Choi KS, Park JW, Yun JW, Shin JS, Lee HY, Seo JY, Nam KT, Gee HY, Seong JK. Temporal Transcriptome Analysis of SARS-CoV-2-Infected Lung and Spleen in Human ACE2-Transgenic Mice. Mol Cells 2022; 45:896-910. [PMID: 36324270 PMCID: PMC9794551 DOI: 10.14348/molcells.2022.0089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible and potentially fatal virus. So far, most comprehensive analyses encompassing clinical and transcriptional manifestation have concentrated on the lungs. Here, we confirmed evident signs of viral infection in the lungs and spleen of SARS-CoV-2-infected K18-hACE2 mice, which replicate the phenotype and infection symptoms in hospitalized humans. Seven days post viral detection in organs, infected mice showed decreased vital signs, leading to death. Bronchopneumonia due to infiltration of leukocytes in the lungs and reduction in the spleen lymphocyte region were observed. Transcriptome profiling implicated the meticulous regulation of distress and recovery from cytokine-mediated immunity by distinct immune cell types in a time-dependent manner. In lungs, the chemokine-driven response to viral invasion was highly elevated at 2 days post infection (dpi). In late infection, diseased lungs, post the innate immune process, showed recovery signs. The spleen established an even more immediate line of defense than the lungs, and the cytokine expression profile dropped at 7 dpi. At 5 dpi, spleen samples diverged into two distinct groups with different transcriptome profile and pathophysiology. Inhibition of consecutive host cell viral entry and massive immunoglobulin production and proteolysis inhibition seemed that one group endeavored to survive, while the other group struggled with developmental regeneration against consistent viral intrusion through the replication cycle. Our results may contribute to improved understanding of the longitudinal response to viral infection and development of potential therapeutics for hospitalized patients affected by SARS-CoV-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jung Ah Kim
- Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Sung-Hee Kim
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Jung Seon Seo
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Hyuna Noh
- Korea Mouse Phenotyping Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Haengdueng Jeong
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Jiseon Kim
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Donghun Jeon
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Jeong Jin Kim
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Dain On
- Korea Mouse Phenotyping Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
- Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Genomics, Research Institute for Veterinary Science, and BK21 PLUS Program for Creative Veterinary Science Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Suhyeon Yoon
- Korea Mouse Phenotyping Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Sang Gyu Lee
- Interdisciplinary Program for Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Youn Woo Lee
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Hui Jeong Jang
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - In Ho Park
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
- Institute of Immunology and Immunological Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Jooyeon Oh
- Department of Microbiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Sang-Hyuk Seok
- Division of Biomedical Convergence, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
| | - Yu Jin Lee
- Division of Biomedical Convergence, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
| | - Seung-Min Hong
- Laboratory of Avian Diseases, BK21 PLUS Program for Veterinary Science and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Se-Hee An
- Laboratory of Avian Diseases, BK21 PLUS Program for Veterinary Science and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Joon-Yong Bae
- Department of Microbiology, Institute for Viral Diseases, Biosafety Center, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul 02841, Korea
| | - Jung-ah Choi
- Science Unit, International Vaccine Institute, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Seo Yeon Kim
- Preclinical Research Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Young Been Kim
- Preclinical Research Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Ji-Yeon Hwang
- Preclinical Research Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Hyo-Jung Lee
- Department of Periodontology, Section of Dentistry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Hong Bin Kim
- Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam 13620, Korea
| | - Dae Gwin Jeong
- Bionanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon 34141, Korea
| | - Daesub Song
- Department of Veterinary Medicine Virology Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Manki Song
- Science Unit, International Vaccine Institute, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Man-Seong Park
- Department of Microbiology, Institute for Viral Diseases, Biosafety Center, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul 02841, Korea
| | - Kang-Seuk Choi
- Laboratory of Avian Diseases, BK21 PLUS Program for Veterinary Science and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Jun Won Park
- Division of Biomedical Convergence, College of Biomedical Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea
| | - Jun-Won Yun
- Laboratory of Veterinary Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
| | - Jeon-Soo Shin
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
- Institute of Immunology and Immunological Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
- Department of Microbiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Ho-Young Lee
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 13620, Korea
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, Korea
| | - Jun-Young Seo
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Ki Taek Nam
- Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Heon Yung Gee
- Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Je Kyung Seong
- Korea Mouse Phenotyping Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
- Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Genomics, Research Institute for Veterinary Science, and BK21 PLUS Program for Creative Veterinary Science Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
- Interdisciplinary Program for Bioinformatics, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
- BIO-MAX Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
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Chung J, Vig V, Sun X, Han X, O’Connor GT, Chen X, DeAngelis MM, Farrer LA, Subramanian ML. Genome-Wide Pleiotropy Study Identifies Association of PDGFB with Age-Related Macular Degeneration and COVID-19 Infection Outcomes. J Clin Med 2022; 12:jcm12010109. [PMID: 36614910 PMCID: PMC9821609 DOI: 10.3390/jcm12010109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been implicated as a risk factor for severe consequences from COVID-19. We evaluated the genetic architecture shared between AMD and COVID-19 (critical illness, hospitalization, and infections) using analyses of genetic correlations and pleiotropy (i.e., cross-phenotype meta-analysis) of AMD (n = 33,976) and COVID-19 (n ≥ 1,388,342) and subsequent analyses including expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL), differential gene expression, and Mendelian randomization (MR). We observed a significant genetic correlation between AMD and COVID-19 infection (rG = 0.10, p = 0.02) and identified novel genome-wide significant associations near PDGFB (best SNP: rs130651; p = 2.4 × 10-8) in the pleiotropy analysis of the two diseases. The disease-risk allele of rs130651 was significantly associated with increased gene expression levels of PDGFB in multiple tissues (best eQTL p = 1.8 × 10-11 in whole blood) and immune cells (best eQTL p = 7.1 × 10-20 in T-cells). PDGFB expression was observed to be higher in AMD cases than AMD controls {fold change (FC) = 1.02; p = 0.067}, as well as in the peak COVID-19 symptom stage (11-20 days after the symptom onset) compared to early/progressive stage (0-10 days) among COVID-19 patients over age 40 (FC = 2.17; p = 0.03) and age 50 (FC = 2.15; p = 0.04). Our MR analysis found that the liability of AMD risk derived from complement system dysfunction {OR (95% CI); hospitalization = 1.02 (1.01-1.03), infection = 1.02 (1.01-1.03) and increased levels of serum cytokine PDGF-BB {β (95% CI); critical illness = 0.07 (0.02-0.11)} are significantly associated with COVID-19 outcomes. Our study demonstrated that the liability of AMD is associated with an increased risk of COVID-19, and PDGFB may be responsible for the severe COVID-19 outcomes among AMD patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeyoon Chung
- Department of Medicine (Biomedical Genetics), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Viha Vig
- Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Xinyu Sun
- Department of Medicine (Biomedical Genetics), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Xudong Han
- Department of Medicine (Biomedical Genetics), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - George T. O’Connor
- Department of Medicine (Pulmonary & Critical Care), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Xuejing Chen
- Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Margaret M. DeAngelis
- Department of Population Health Sciences and Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo and VA Research Service, Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| | - Lindsay A. Farrer
- Department of Medicine (Biomedical Genetics), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Department of Neurology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Correspondence: (L.A.F.); (M.L.S.); Tel.: +1-617-358-3550 (L.A.F.); +1-617-414-2020 (M.L.S.)
| | - Manju L. Subramanian
- Department of Medicine (Pulmonary & Critical Care), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Correspondence: (L.A.F.); (M.L.S.); Tel.: +1-617-358-3550 (L.A.F.); +1-617-414-2020 (M.L.S.)
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Multi-objective optimization identifies a specific and interpretable COVID-19 host response signature. Cell Syst 2022; 13:989-1001.e8. [PMID: 36549275 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2022.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Revised: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The identification of a COVID-19 host response signature in blood can increase the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and improve diagnostic tools. Applying a multi-objective optimization framework to both massive public and new multi-omics data, we identified a COVID-19 signature regulated at both transcriptional and epigenetic levels. We validated the signature's robustness in multiple independent COVID-19 cohorts. Using public data from 8,630 subjects and 53 conditions, we demonstrated no cross-reactivity with other viral and bacterial infections, COVID-19 comorbidities, or confounders. In contrast, previously reported COVID-19 signatures were associated with significant cross-reactivity. The signature's interpretation, based on cell-type deconvolution and single-cell data analysis, revealed prominent yet complementary roles for plasmablasts and memory T cells. Although the signal from plasmablasts mediated COVID-19 detection, the signal from memory T cells controlled against cross-reactivity with other viral infections. This framework identified a robust, interpretable COVID-19 signature and is broadly applicable in other disease contexts. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.
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Olsen MB, Huse C, de Sousa MML, Murphy SL, Sarno A, Obermann TS, Yang K, Holter JC, Jørgensen MJ, Christensen EE, Wang W, Ji P, Heggelund L, Hoel H, Dyrhol-Riise AM, Gregersen I, Aukrust P, Bjørås M, Halvorsen B, Dahl TB. DNA Repair Mechanisms are Activated in Circulating Lymphocytes of Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients. J Inflamm Res 2022; 15:6629-6644. [PMID: 36514358 PMCID: PMC9741826 DOI: 10.2147/jir.s379331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Purpose Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are an important part of the inflammatory response during infection but can also promote DNA damage. Due to the sustained inflammation in severe Covid-19, we hypothesized that hospitalized Covid-19 patients would be characterized by increased levels of oxidative DNA damage and dysregulation of the DNA repair machinery. Patients and Methods Levels of the oxidative DNA lesion 8-oxoG and levels of base excision repair (BER) proteins were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients (8-oxoG, n = 22; BER, n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 10) (Cohort 1). Gene expression related to DNA repair was investigated in two independent cohorts of hospitalized Covid-19 patients (Cohort 1; 15 patents and 5 controls, Cohort 2; 15 patients and 6 controls), and by publicly available datasets. Results Patients and healthy controls showed comparable amounts of oxidative DNA damage as assessed by 8-oxoG while levels of several BER proteins were increased in Covid-19 patients, indicating enhanced DNA repair in acute Covid-19 disease. Furthermore, gene expression analysis demonstrated regulation of genes involved in BER and double strand break repair (DSBR) in PBMC of Covid-19 patients and expression level of several DSBR genes correlated with the degree of respiratory failure. Finally, by re-analyzing publicly available data, we found that the pathway Hallmark DNA repair was significantly more regulated in circulating immune cells during Covid-19 compared to influenza virus infection, bacterial pneumonia or acute respiratory infection due to seasonal coronavirus. Conclusion Although beneficial by protecting against DNA damage, long-term activation of the DNA repair machinery could also contribute to persistent inflammation, potentially through mechanisms such as the induction of cellular senescence. However, further studies that also include measurements of additional markers of DNA damage are required to determine the role and precise molecular mechanisms for DNA repair in SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Belland Olsen
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Camilla Huse
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mirta Mittelstedt Leal de Sousa
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway,Proteomics and Modomics Experimental Core Facility (PROMEC), NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Sarah Louise Murphy
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Antonio Sarno
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway,Department of Fisheries and New Biomarine Industry, SINTEF Ocean, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Tobias Sebastian Obermann
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Kuan Yang
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jan Cato Holter
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Marte Jøntvedt Jørgensen
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Erik Egeland Christensen
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Wei Wang
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Ping Ji
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Lars Heggelund
- Department of Internal Medicine, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, Drammen, Norway,Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Hedda Hoel
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Department of Medicine, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Anne Margarita Dyrhol-Riise
- Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ida Gregersen
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Pål Aukrust
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Section of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Magnar Bjørås
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway,Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Bente Halvorsen
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Tuva Børresdatter Dahl
- Division of Critical Care and Emergencies, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Correspondence: Tuva Børresdatter Dahl, Division of Critical Care and Emergencies and Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Sognsvannsveien 20, Oslo, Norway, Tel +4723072786, Email
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de Miguel-Gómez L, Sebastián-León P, Romeu M, Pellicer N, Faus A, Pellicer A, Díaz-Gimeno P, Cervelló I. Endometrial gene expression differences in women with coronavirus disease 2019. Fertil Steril 2022; 118:1159-1169. [PMID: 36333264 PMCID: PMC9624514 DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.09.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 09/05/2022] [Accepted: 09/08/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To study the potential effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the endometrial transcriptome of affected, symptomatic women for the detection of altered gene expression. DESIGN Pilot study of the endometrial transcriptomes of women manifesting COVID-19 compared with those of women without COVID-19 undergoing hysteroscopic procedures for benign gynecologic disorders using RNA sequencing. SETTING Hospital and university laboratories. PATIENT(S) Women with (n = 14) and without a COVID-19 (n = 10) diagnosis based on a nasopharyngeal swab analysis using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. The endometrium of the patients with COVID-19 had previously been tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, revealing the absence of the virus in this tissue. INTERVENTION(S) Endometrial biopsy sample collection. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURE(S) Endometrial gene expression and functional analysis of symptomatic patients with COVID-19 vs. individuals without the infection. RESULT(S) The systemic disease COVID-19 altered endometrial gene expression in 75% of the women, with the patients exhibiting a preponderance of 163 up-regulated (e.g., UTS2, IFI6, IFIH1, and BNIP3) and 72 down-regulated genes (e.g., CPZ, CDH3, and IRF4) (false discovery rate<0.05). A total of 161 dysregulated functions (36 up-regulated and 125 down-regulated) were typically enriched in the endometria of the patients with COVID-19, including up-regulation in pathways involved in the development of immune responses to viruses and cytokine inflammation, reflecting elicitation of a COVID-19 response pathway. CONCLUSION(S) Coronavirus disease 2019 affects endometrial gene expression despite the absence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in endometrial tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucía de Miguel-Gómez
- IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain, bReproductive Medicine Research Group, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Patricia Sebastián-León
- IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain, bReproductive Medicine Research Group, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Mónica Romeu
- La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain,Women's Health Area, Human Reproduction Unit, La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain
| | - Nuria Pellicer
- La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain,Women's Health Area, Human Reproduction Unit, La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain
| | - Amparo Faus
- IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain, bReproductive Medicine Research Group, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Antonio Pellicer
- Women's Health Area, Human Reproduction Unit, La Fe University Hospital, Valencia, Spain,Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology Department, University of Valencia, Spain
| | - Patricia Díaz-Gimeno
- IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain, bReproductive Medicine Research Group, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Irene Cervelló
- IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain, bReproductive Medicine Research Group, La Fe Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain,Correspondence: Irene Cervelló, Ph.D., IVI Foundation, La Fe Health Research Institute, 106 Fernando Abril Martorell Avenue. La Fe University Hospital, Biopolo, 1st floor, Valencia 46026
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38
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Qin R, Kurz E, Chen S, Zeck B, Chiribogas L, Jackson D, Herchen A, Attia T, Carlock M, Rapkiewicz A, Bar-Sagi D, Ritchie B, Ross TM, Mahal LK. α2,6-Sialylation Is Upregulated in Severe COVID-19, Implicating the Complement Cascade. ACS Infect Dis 2022; 8:2348-2361. [PMID: 36219583 PMCID: PMC9578644 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.2c00421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying COVID-19 severity is desperately needed in current times. Although hyper-inflammation drives severe COVID-19, precise mechanisms triggering this cascade and what role glycosylation might play therein are unknown. Here we report the first high-throughput glycomic analysis of COVID-19 plasma samples and autopsy tissues. We find that α2,6-sialylation is upregulated in the plasma of patients with severe COVID-19 and in autopsied lung tissue. This glycan motif is enriched on members of the complement cascade (e.g., C5, C9), which show higher levels of sialylation in severe COVID-19. In the lung tissue, we observe increased complement deposition, associated with elevated α2,6-sialylation levels, corresponding to elevated markers of poor prognosis (IL-6) and fibrotic response. We also observe upregulation of the α2,6-sialylation enzyme ST6GAL1 in patients who succumbed to COVID-19. Our work identifies a heretofore undescribed relationship between sialylation and complement in severe COVID-19, potentially informing future therapeutic development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Qin
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Emma Kurz
- Department
of Cell Biology, NYU Grossman School of
Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, New York 10016, United
States
| | - Shuhui Chen
- Department
of Chemistry, Biomedical Research Institute, New York University, New York, New York10003, United States
| | - Briana Zeck
- Center
for Biospecimen Research and Development, NYU Langone, New York, New York 10016, United
States
| | - Luis Chiribogas
- Center
for Biospecimen Research and Development, NYU Langone, New York, New York 10016, United
States
| | - Dana Jackson
- University
of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7, Canada
| | - Alex Herchen
- University
of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7, Canada
| | - Tyson Attia
- University
of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7, Canada
| | - Michael Carlock
- Center for
Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30605, United States
| | - Amy Rapkiewicz
- Department
of Pathology, NYU Long Island School of
Medicine, Mineola, New York 11501, United
States
| | - Dafna Bar-Sagi
- Department
of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, United States
| | - Bruce Ritchie
- University
of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7, Canada
| | - Ted M. Ross
- Center for
Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30605, United States
| | - Lara K. Mahal
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
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Zarei Ghobadi M, Emamzadeh R, Teymoori-Rad M, Afsaneh E. Exploration of blood−derived coding and non-coding RNA diagnostic immunological panels for COVID-19 through a co-expressed-based machine learning procedure. Front Immunol 2022; 13:1001070. [DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1001070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) is the causative virus of the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Evaluating the immunological factors and other implicated processes underlying the progression of COVID-19 is essential for the recognition and then the design of efficacious therapies. Therefore, we analyzed RNAseq data obtained from PBMCs of the COVID-19 patients to explore coding and non-coding RNA diagnostic immunological panels. For this purpose, we integrated multiple RNAseq data and analyzed them overall as well as by considering the state of disease including severe and non-severe conditions. Afterward, we utilized a co-expressed-based machine learning procedure comprising weighted-gene co-expression analysis and differential expression gene as filter phase and recursive feature elimination-support vector machine as wrapper phase. This procedure led to the identification of two modules containing 5 and 84 genes which are mostly involved in cell dysregulation and innate immune suppression, respectively. Moreover, the role of vitamin D in regulating some classifiers was highlighted. Further analysis disclosed the role of discriminant miRNAs including miR-197-3p, miR-150-5p, miR-340-5p, miR-122-5p, miR-1307-3p, miR-34a-5p, miR-98-5p and their target genes comprising GAN, VWC2, TNFRSF6B, and CHST3 in the metabolic pathways. These classifiers differentiate the final fate of infection toward severe or non-severe COVID-19. The identified classifier genes and miRNAs may help in the proper design of therapeutic procedures considering their involvement in the immune and metabolic pathways.
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40
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Anatolou D, Dovrolis N, Ragia G, Kolios G, Manolopoulos VG. Unpacking COVID-19 Systems Biology in Lung and Whole Blood with Transcriptomics and miRNA Regulators. OMICS : A JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY 2022; 26:608-621. [PMID: 36269619 DOI: 10.1089/omi.2022.0104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
COVID-19 is a systemic disease affecting tissues and organs, including and beyond the lung. Apart from the current pandemic context, we also have vastly inadequate knowledge of consequences of repeated exposures to SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the virus causing COVID-19, in multiple organ systems and the whole organism scales when the disease evolves from a pandemic to an endemic state. This calls for a systems biology and systems medicine approach and unpacking the effects of COVID-19 in lung as well as other tissues. We report here original findings from transcriptomics analyses and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in lung samples from 60 patients and 27 healthy controls, and in whole blood samples from 255 patients and 103 healthy individuals. A total of 11 datasets with RNA-seq transcriptomic data were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus and the European Nucleotide Archive. The identified DEGs were used to construct protein interaction and functional networks and to identify related pathways and miRNAs. We found 35 DEGs common between lung and the whole blood, and importantly, 2 novel genes, namely CYP1B1 and TNFAIP6, which have not been previously implicated with COVID-19. We also identified four novel miRNA potential regulators, hsa-mir-192-5p, hsa-mir-221-3p, hsa-mir-4756-3p, and hsa-mir-10a-5p, implicated in lung or other diseases induced by coronaviruses. In summary, these findings offer new molecular leads and insights to unpack COVID-19 systems biology in a whole organism context and might inform future antiviral drug, diagnostics, and vaccine discovery efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dimitra Anatolou
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center (IMPReS), Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - Nikolas Dovrolis
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center (IMPReS), Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - Georgia Ragia
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center (IMPReS), Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - George Kolios
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center (IMPReS), Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - Vangelis G Manolopoulos
- Laboratory of Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Individualised Medicine & Pharmacological Research Solutions Center (IMPReS), Alexandroupolis, Greece
- Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Academic General Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Alexandroupolis, Greece
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Xing J, Shankar R, Ko M, Zhang K, Zhang S, Drelich A, Paithankar S, Chekalin E, Chua MS, Rajasekaran S, Kent Tseng CT, Zheng M, Kim S, Chen B. Deciphering COVID-19 host transcriptomic complexity and variations for therapeutic discovery against new variants. iScience 2022; 25:105068. [PMID: 36093376 PMCID: PMC9439871 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Revised: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The molecular manifestations of host cells responding to SARS-CoV-2 and its evolving variants of infection are vastly different across the studied models and conditions, imposing challenges for host-based antiviral drug discovery. Based on the postulation that antiviral drugs tend to reverse the global host gene expression induced by viral infection, we retrospectively evaluated hundreds of signatures derived from 1,700 published host transcriptomic profiles of SARS/MERS/SARS-CoV-2 infection using an iterative data-driven approach. A few of these signatures could be reversed by known anti-SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors, suggesting the potential of extrapolating the biology for new variant research. We discovered IMD-0354 as a promising candidate to reverse the signatures globally with nanomolar IC50 against SARS-CoV-2 and its five variants. IMD-0354 stimulated type I interferon antiviral response, inhibited viral entry, and down-regulated hijacked proteins. This study demonstrates that the conserved coronavirus signatures and the transcriptomic reversal approach that leverages polypharmacological effects could guide new variant therapeutic discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Xing
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Rama Shankar
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Meehyun Ko
- Zoonotic Virus Laboratory, Institut Pasteur Korea, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 13488, Korea
| | - Keke Zhang
- Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Sulin Zhang
- Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Aleksandra Drelich
- Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Shreya Paithankar
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Eugene Chekalin
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Mei-Sze Chua
- Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Surender Rajasekaran
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
- Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Chien-Te Kent Tseng
- Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
- Center of Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
| | - Mingyue Zheng
- Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Seungtaek Kim
- Zoonotic Virus Laboratory, Institut Pasteur Korea, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 13488, Korea
| | - Bin Chen
- Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
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Biomarker screening in preeclampsia: an RNA-sequencing approach based on data from multiple studies. J Hypertens 2022; 40:2022-2036. [PMID: 36052525 DOI: 10.1097/hjh.0000000000003226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Biomarkers have become important in the prognosis and diagnosis of various diseases. High-throughput methods, such as RNA sequencing facilitate the detection of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), hence potential biomarker candidates. Individual studies suggest long lists of DEGs, hampering the identification of clinically relevant ones. Concerning preeclampsia - a major obstetric burden with high risk for adverse maternal and/or neonatal outcomes - limitations in diagnosis and prediction are still important issues. We, therefore, developed a workflow to facilitate the screening for biomarkers. METHODS On the basis of the tool DESeq2, a comprehensive workflow for identifying DEGs was established, analyzing data from several publicly available RNA-sequencing studies. We applied it to four RNA-sequencing datasets (one blood, three placenta) analyzing patients with preeclampsia and normotensive controls. We compared our results with other published approaches and evaluated their performance. RESULTS We identified 110 genes that are dysregulated in preeclampsia, observed in at least three of the studies analyzed, six even in all four studies. These included FLT-1, TREM-1, and FN1, which either represent established biomarkers at protein level, or promising candidates based on recent studies. For comparison, using a published meta-analysis approach, 5240 DEGs were obtained. CONCLUSION This study presents a data analysis workflow for preeclampsia biomarker screening, capable of identifying promising biomarker candidates, while drastically reducing the numbers of candidates. Moreover, we were also able to confirm its performance for heart failure. This approach can be applied to additional diseases for biomarker identification, and the set of DEGs identified in preeclampsia represents a resource for further studies.
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Bhat SA, Shibata T, Leong M, Plummer J, Vail E, Khan Z. Comparative Upper Respiratory Tract Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals a Potential Role of Early Activation of Interferon Pathway in Severe COVID-19. Viruses 2022; 14:v14102182. [PMID: 36298737 PMCID: PMC9608318 DOI: 10.3390/v14102182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Revised: 09/24/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 results in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to cause mild to acute respiratory infection and sometimes progress towards respiratory failure and death. The mechanisms driving the progression of the disease and accumulation of high viral load in the lungs without initial symptoms remain elusive. In this study, we evaluated the upper respiratory tract host transcriptional response in COVID-19 patients with mild to severe symptoms and compared it with the control COVID-19 negative group using RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). Our results reveal an upregulated early type I interferon response in severe COVID-19 patients as compared to mild or negative COVID-19 patients. Moreover, severely symptomatic patients have pronounced induction of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs), particularly the oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) family of genes. Our results are in concurrence with other studies depicting the early induction of IFN-I response in severe COVID-19 patients, providing novel insights about the ISGs involved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shabir A. Bhat
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Tomohiro Shibata
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Matthew Leong
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Jasmine Plummer
- The Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Eric Vail
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Zakir Khan
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-(310)-423-7768
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The Variation of Transcriptomic Perturbations is Associated with the Development and Progression of Various Diseases. DISEASE MARKERS 2022; 2022:2148627. [PMID: 36204511 PMCID: PMC9530920 DOI: 10.1155/2022/2148627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Background Although transcriptomic data have been widely applied to explore various diseases, few studies have investigated the association between transcriptomic perturbations and disease development in a wide variety of diseases. Methods Based on a previously developed algorithm for quantifying intratumor heterogeneity at the transcriptomic level, we defined the variation of transcriptomic perturbations (VTP) of a disease relative to the health status. Based on publicly available transcriptome datasets, we compared VTP values between the disease and health status and analyzed correlations between VTP values and disease progression or severity in various diseases, including neurological disorders, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, liver diseases, kidney diseases, digestive diseases, and endocrine diseases. We also identified the genes and pathways whose expression perturbations correlated positively with VTP across diverse diseases. Results VTP values were upregulated in various diseases relative to their normal controls. VTP values were significantly greater in define than in possible or probable Alzheimer's disease. VTP values were significantly larger in intensive care unit (ICU) COVID-19 patients than in non-ICU patients, and in COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilatory support (MVS) than in those not requiring MVS. VTP correlated positively with viral loads in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. Moreover, the AIDS patients treated with abacavir or zidovudine had lower VTP values than those without such therapies. In pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients, VTP values followed the pattern: active TB > latent TB > normal controls. VTP values were greater in clinically apparent than in presymptomatic malaria. VTP correlated negatively with the cardiac index of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), VTP showed a negative correlation with forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1). VTP values increased with H. pylori infection and were upregulated in atrophic gastritis caused by H. pylori infection. The genes and pathways whose expression perturbations correlated positively with VTP scores across diseases were mainly involved in the regulation of immune, metabolic, and cellular activities. Conclusions VTP is upregulated in the disease versus health status, and its upregulation is associated with disease progression and severity in various diseases. Thus, VTP has potential clinical implications for disease diagnosis and prognosis.
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Duhalde Vega M, Olivera D, Gastão Davanzo G, Bertullo M, Noya V, Fabiano de Souza G, Primon Muraro S, Castro I, Arévalo AP, Crispo M, Galliussi G, Russo S, Charbonnier D, Rammauro F, Jeldres M, Alamón C, Varela V, Batthyany C, Bollati-Fogolín M, Oppezzo P, Pritsch O, Proença-Módena JL, Nakaya HI, Trias E, Barbeito L, Anegon I, Cuturi MC, Moraes-Vieira P, Segovia M, Hill M. PD-1/PD-L1 blockade abrogates a dysfunctional innate-adaptive immune axis in critical β-coronavirus disease. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabn6545. [PMID: 36129987 PMCID: PMC9491709 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn6545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
Severe COVID-19 is associated with hyperinflammation and weak T cell responses against SARS-CoV-2. However, the links between those processes remain partially characterized. Moreover, whether and how therapeutically manipulating T cells may benefit patients are unknown. Our genetic and pharmacological evidence demonstrates that the ion channel TMEM176B inhibited inflammasome activation triggered by SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2-related murine β-coronavirus. Tmem176b-/- mice infected with murine β-coronavirus developed inflammasome-dependent T cell dysfunction and critical disease, which was controlled by modulating dysfunctional T cells with PD-1 blockers. In critical COVID-19, inflammasome activation correlated with dysfunctional T cells and low monocytic TMEM176B expression, whereas PD-L1 blockade rescued T cell functionality. Here, we mechanistically link T cell dysfunction and inflammation, supporting a cancer immunotherapy to reinforce T cell immunity in critical β-coronavirus disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maite Duhalde Vega
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Daniela Olivera
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Gustavo Gastão Davanzo
- Laboratory of Immunometabolism, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Verónica Noya
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Sanatorio Americano, 11600 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Gabriela Fabiano de Souza
- Laboratory of Emerging Viruses, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | - Stéfanie Primon Muraro
- Laboratory of Emerging Viruses, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Ana Paula Arévalo
- Laboratory Animals Biotechnology, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Martina Crispo
- Laboratory Animals Biotechnology, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Germán Galliussi
- Laboratory of Vascular Biology and Drug Development, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Sofía Russo
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - David Charbonnier
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Florencia Rammauro
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Laboratory of Immunovirology, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Mathías Jeldres
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Catalina Alamón
- Laboratorio de Neurodegeneración, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Valentina Varela
- Laboratorio de Neurodegeneración, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Carlos Batthyany
- Laboratory of Vascular Biology and Drug Development, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | | | - Pablo Oppezzo
- Research Laboratory on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Otto Pritsch
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Laboratory of Immunovirology, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - José Luiz Proença-Módena
- Laboratory of Emerging Viruses, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Emiliano Trias
- Laboratorio de Neurodegeneración, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Luis Barbeito
- Laboratorio de Neurodegeneración, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Ignacio Anegon
- INSERM UMR 1064, Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology; Université de Nantes; CHU Nantes, Institut de Transplantation Urologie Néphrologie (ITUN), 44093 Nantes, France
| | - María Cristina Cuturi
- INSERM UMR 1064, Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology; Université de Nantes; CHU Nantes, Institut de Transplantation Urologie Néphrologie (ITUN), 44093 Nantes, France
| | - Pedro Moraes-Vieira
- Laboratory of Immunometabolism, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil
| | - Mercedes Segovia
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Corresponding author. (M.S.); (M.H.)
| | - Marcelo Hill
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Inflammation, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, 11400 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Immunobiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Republic, 11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
- Corresponding author. (M.S.); (M.H.)
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Daamen AR, Bachali P, Bonham CA, Somerville L, Sturek JM, Grammer AC, Kadl A, Lipsky PE. COVID-19 patients exhibit unique transcriptional signatures indicative of disease severity. Front Immunol 2022; 13:989556. [PMID: 36189236 PMCID: PMC9522616 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.989556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 manifests a spectrum of respiratory symptoms, with the more severe often requiring hospitalization. To identify markers for disease progression, we analyzed longitudinal gene expression data from patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for acute hypoxic respiratory failure (AHRF) as well as other ICU patients with or without AHRF and correlated results of gene set enrichment analysis with clinical features. The results were then compared with a second dataset of COVID-19 patients separated by disease stage and severity. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that enrichment of plasma cells (PCs) was characteristic of all COVID-19 patients whereas enrichment of interferon (IFN) and neutrophil gene signatures was specific to patients requiring hospitalization. Furthermore, gene expression results were used to divide AHRF COVID-19 patients into 2 groups with differences in immune profiles and clinical features indicative of severe disease. Thus, transcriptomic analysis reveals gene signatures unique to COVID-19 patients and provides opportunities for identification of the most at-risk individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Catherine A. Bonham
- Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Lindsay Somerville
- Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States
- Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Jeffrey M. Sturek
- Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | | | - Alexandra Kadl
- Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United States
- Department of Pharmacology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
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Välikangas T, Junttila S, Rytkönen KT, Kukkonen-Macchi A, Suomi T, Elo LL. COVID-19-specific transcriptomic signature detectable in blood across multiple cohorts. Front Genet 2022; 13:929887. [PMID: 35991542 PMCID: PMC9388772 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.929887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading across the world despite vast global vaccination efforts. Consequently, many studies have looked for potential human host factors and immune mechanisms associated with the disease. However, most studies have focused on comparing COVID-19 patients to healthy controls, while fewer have elucidated the specific host factors distinguishing COVID-19 from other infections. To discover genes specifically related to COVID-19, we reanalyzed transcriptome data from nine independent cohort studies, covering multiple infections, including COVID-19, influenza, seasonal coronaviruses, and bacterial pneumonia. The identified COVID-19-specific signature consisted of 149 genes, involving many signals previously associated with the disease, such as induction of a strong immunoglobulin response and hemostasis, as well as dysregulation of cell cycle-related processes. Additionally, potential new gene candidates related to COVID-19 were discovered. To facilitate exploration of the signature with respect to disease severity, disease progression, and different cell types, we also offer an online tool for easy visualization of the selected genes across multiple datasets at both bulk and single-cell levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommi Välikangas
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
| | - Sini Junttila
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
| | - Kalle T. Rytkönen
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
- Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Anu Kukkonen-Macchi
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
| | - Tomi Suomi
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
- *Correspondence: Tomi Suomi, ; Laura L. Elo,
| | - Laura L. Elo
- Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
- Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- *Correspondence: Tomi Suomi, ; Laura L. Elo,
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Tveita A, Murphy SL, Holter JC, Kildal AB, Michelsen AE, Lerum TV, Kaarbø M, Heggelund L, Holten AR, Finbråten AK, Müller KE, Mathiessen A, Bøe S, Fevang B, Granerud BK, Tonby K, Lind A, Dudman SG, Henriksen KN, Müller F, Skjønsberg OH, Trøseid M, Barratt-Due A, Dyrhol-Riise AM, Aukrust P, Halvorsen B, Dahl TB, Ueland T. High Circulating Levels of the Homeostatic Chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 Predict Mortality and Disease Severity in COVID-19. J Infect Dis 2022; 226:2150-2160. [PMID: 35876699 PMCID: PMC9384496 DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiac313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Revised: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Immune dysregulation is a major factor in the development of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The homeostatic chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 have been implicated as mediators of tissue inflammation, but data on their regulation in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is limited. We thus investigated the levels of these chemokines in COVID-19 patients. METHODS Serial blood samples were obtained from patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (n = 414). Circulating CCL19 and CCL21 levels during hospitalization and 3-month follow-up were analyzed. In vitro assays and analysis of RNAseq data from public repositories were performed to further explore possible regulatory mechanisms. RESULTS A consistent increase in circulating levels of CCL19 and CCL21 was observed, with high levels correlating with disease severity measures, including respiratory failure, need for intensive care, and 60-day all-cause mortality. High levels of CCL21 at admission were associated with persisting impairment of pulmonary function at the 3-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Our findings highlight CCL19 and CCL21 as markers of immune dysregulation in COVID-19. This may reflect aberrant regulation triggered by tissue inflammation, as observed in other chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Determination of the source and regulation of these chemokines and their effects on lung tissue is warranted to further clarify their role in COVID-19. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NCT04321616 and NCT04381819.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anders Tveita
- Correspondence: Anders Tveita, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, Bærum Hospital, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, 1346 Gjettum, Norway ()
| | | | | | - Anders Benjamin Kildal
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Annika E Michelsen
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway
| | - Tøri Vigeland Lerum
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mari Kaarbø
- Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lars Heggelund
- Department of Internal Medicine, Drammen Hospital, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, Drammen, Norway,Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Aleksander Rygh Holten
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Acute Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Karl Erik Müller
- Department of Internal Medicine, Drammen Hospital, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, Drammen, Norway
| | | | - Simen Bøe
- Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Hammerfest County Hospital, Hammerfest, Norway
| | - Børre Fevang
- Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway,Section of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Beathe Kiland Granerud
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kristian Tonby
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway
| | - Andreas Lind
- Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Susanne Gjeruldsen Dudman
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Katerina Nezvalova Henriksen
- Department of Hematology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Hospital Pharmacies, South-Eastern Norway Enterprise, Oslo, Norway
| | - Fredrik Müller
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Microbiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ole Henning Skjønsberg
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway
| | - Marius Trøseid
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway,Section of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Andreas Barratt-Due
- Division of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Immunology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway,Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Anne Ma Dyrhol-Riise
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway
| | - Pål Aukrust
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway,Section of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Bente Halvorsen
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway
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Qin R, Kurz E, Chen S, Zeck B, Chiribogas L, Jackson D, Herchen A, Attia T, Carlock M, Rapkiewicz A, Bar-Sagi D, Ritchie B, Ross TM, Mahal LK. α2,6-Sialylation is Upregulated in Severe COVID-19 Implicating the Complement Cascade. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2022:2022.06.06.22275981. [PMID: 35702159 PMCID: PMC9196116 DOI: 10.1101/2022.06.06.22275981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Better understanding of the mechanisms of COVID-19 severity is desperately needed in current times. Although hyper-inflammation drives severe COVID-19, precise mechanisms triggering this cascade and what role glycosylation might play therein is unknown. Here we report the first high-throughput glycomic analysis of COVID-19 plasma samples and autopsy tissues. We find α2,6-sialylation is upregulated in plasma of patients with severe COVID-19 and in the lung. This glycan motif is enriched on members of the complement cascade, which show higher levels of sialylation in severe COVID-19. In the lung tissue, we observe increased complement deposition, associated with elevated α2,6-sialylation levels, corresponding to elevated markers of poor prognosis (IL-6) and fibrotic response. We also observe upregulation of the α2,6-sialylation enzyme ST6GAL1 in patients who succumbed to COVID-19. Our work identifies a heretofore undescribed relationship between sialylation and complement in severe COVID-19, potentially informing future therapeutic development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Qin
- Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Emma Kurz
- Department of Cell Biology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 550 1st Avenue, New York, New York, USA
| | - Shuhui Chen
- Department of Chemistry, Biomedical Research Institute, New York University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Briana Zeck
- Center for Biospecimen Research and Development, NYU Langone, New York, New York, USA
| | - Luis Chiribogas
- Center for Biospecimen Research and Development, NYU Langone, New York, New York, USA
| | - Dana Jackson
- University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Alex Herchen
- University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Tyson Attia
- University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Michael Carlock
- Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Amy Rapkiewicz
- Department of Pathology, NYU Long Island School of Medicine, Mineola, NY, USA
| | - Dafna Bar-Sagi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
| | - Bruce Ritchie
- University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Ted M. Ross
- Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
| | - Lara K. Mahal
- Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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50
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Wu D, Zhang R, Datta S. Unraveling T Cell Responses for Long Term Protection of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Front Genet 2022; 13:871164. [PMID: 35601483 PMCID: PMC9114762 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.871164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global need for vaccines to prevent the disease is imperative. To date, several manufacturers have made efforts to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. In spite of the success of developing many useful vaccines so far, it will be helpful for future vaccine designs, targetting long-term disease protection. For this, we need to know more details of the mechanism of T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we first detected pairwise differentially expressed genes among the healthy, mild, and severe COVID-19 groups of patients based on the expression of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, respectively. The CD4+ T cells dataset contains 6 mild COVID-19 patients, 8 severe COVID-19 patients, and 6 healthy donors, while the CD8+ T cells dataset has 15 mild COVID-19 patients, 22 severe COVID-19 patients, and 4 healthy donors. Furthermore, we utilized the deep learning algorithm to investigate the potential of differentially expressed genes in distinguishing different disease states. Finally, we built co-expression networks among those genes separately. For CD4+ T cells, we identified 6 modules for the healthy network, 4 modules for the mild network, and 1 module for the severe network; for CD8+ T cells, we detected 6 modules for the healthy network, 4 modules for the mild network, and 3 modules for the severe network. We also obtained hub genes for each module and evaluated the differential connectivity of each gene between pairs of networks constructed on different disease states. Summarizing the results, we find that the following genes TNF, CCL4, XCL1, and IFITM1 can be highly identified with SARS-CoV-2. It is interesting to see that IFITM1 has already been known to inhibit multiple infections with other enveloped viruses, including coronavirus. In addition, our networks show some specific patterns of connectivity among genes and some meaningful clusters related to COVID-19. The results might improve the insight of gene expression mechanisms associated with both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, expand our understanding of COVID-19 and help develop vaccines with long-term protection.
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