APOA1 Level is Negatively Correlated with the Severity of COVID-19

Synergistic Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Lipid-Free Apolipoprotein (apo) A-I and CIGB-258 in Acute-Phase Zebrafish via Stabilization of the apoA-I Structure to Enhance Anti-Glycation and Antioxidant Activities

CIGB-258, a 3 kDa peptide from heat shock protein 60, exhibits synergistic anti-inflammatory activity with apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in reconstituted high-density lipoproteins (rHDLs) via stabilization of the rHDL structure. This study explored the interactions between CIGB-258 and apoA-I in the lipid-free state to assess their synergistic effects in the structural and functional enhancement of apoA-I and HDL. A co-treatment of lipid-free apoA-I and CIGB-258 inhibited the cupric ion-mediated oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and a lowering of oxidized species in the dose-responsive manner of CIGB-258. The co-presence of CIGB-258 caused a blue shift in the wavelength of maximum fluorescence (WMF) of apoA-I with protection from proteolytic degradation. The addition of apoA-I:CIGB-258, with a molar ratio of 1:0.1, 1:0.5, and 1:1, to HDL2 and HDL3 remarkably enhanced the antioxidant ability against LDL oxidation up to two-fold higher than HDL alone. HDL-associated paraoxonase activities were elevated up to 28% by the co-addition of apoA-I and CIGB-258, which is linked to the suppression of Cu2+-mediated HDL oxidation with the slowest electromobility. Isothermal denaturation by a urea treatment showed that the co-presence of CIGB-258 attenuated the exposure of intrinsic tryptophan (Trp) and increased the mid-points of denaturation from 2.33 M for apoA-I alone to 2.57 M for an apoA-I:CIGB-258 mixture with a molar ratio of 1:0.5. The addition of CIGB-258 to apoA-I protected the carboxymethyllysine (CML)-facilitated glycation of apoA-I with the prevention of Trp exposure. A co-treatment of apoA-I and CIGB-258 synergistically safeguarded zebrafish embryos from acute death by CML-toxicity, suppressing oxidative stress and apoptosis. In adult zebrafish, the co-treatment of apoA-I+CIGB-258 exerted the highest anti-inflammatory activity with a higher recovery of swimming ability and survivability than apoA-I alone or CIGB-258 alone. A co-injection of apoA-I and CIGB-258 led to the lowest infiltration of neutrophils and interleukin (IL)-6 generation in hepatic tissue, with the lowest serum triglyceride, aspartate transaminase, and alanine transaminase levels in plasma. In conclusion, the co-presence of CIGB-258 ameliorated the beneficial functionalities of apoA-I, such as antioxidant and anti-glycation activities, by enhancing the structural stabilization and protection of apoA-I. The combination of apoA-I and CIGB-258 synergistically enforced the anti-inflammatory effect against CML toxicity in embryos and adult zebrafish.

Evaluation of serum and urine biomarkers for severe COVID-19

Introduction

The new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, poses complex challenges exacerbated by several factors, with respiratory tissue lesions being notably significant among them. Consequently, there is a pressing need to identify informative biological markers that can indicate the severity of the disease. Several studies have highlighted the involvement of proteins such as APOA1, XPNPEP2, ORP150, CUBN, HCII, and CREB3L3 in these respiratory tissue lesions. However, there is a lack of information regarding antibodies to these proteins in the human body, which could potentially serve as valuable diagnostic markers for COVID-19. Simultaneously, it is relevant to select biological fluids that can be obtained without invasive procedures. Urine is one such fluid, but its effect on clinical laboratory analysis is not yet fully understood due to lack of study on its composition.

Methods

Methods used in this study are as follows: total serum protein analysis; ELISA on moderate and severe COVID-19 patients' serum and urine; bioinformatic methods: ROC analysis, PCA, SVM.

Results and discussion

The levels of antiAPOA1, antiXPNPEP2, antiORP150, antiCUBN, antiHCII, and antiCREB3L3 exhibit gradual fluctuations ranging from moderate to severe in both the serum and urine of COVID-19 patients. However, the diagnostic value of individual anti-protein antibodies is low, in both blood serum and urine. On the contrary, joint detection of these antibodies in patients' serum significantly increases the diagnostic value as demonstrated by the results of principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM). The non-linear regression model achieved an accuracy of 0.833. Furthermore, PCA aided in identifying serum protein markers that have the greatest impact on patient group discrimination. The study revealed that serum serves as a superior analyte for describing protein quantification due to its consistent composition and lack of organic salts and drug residues, which can otherwise affect protein stability.

Metabolomics-directed nanotechnology in viral diseases management: COVID-19 a case study

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is currently regarded as the twenty-first century's plague accounting for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Besides its reported symptoms affecting the respiratory tract, it was found to alter several metabolic pathways inside the body. Nanoparticles proved to combat viral infections including COVID-19 to demonstrate great success in developing vaccines based on mRNA technology. However, various types of nanoparticles can affect the host metabolome. Considering the increasing proportion of nano-based vaccines, this review compiles and analyses how COVID-19 and nanoparticles affect lipids, amino acids, and carbohydrates metabolism. A search was conducted on PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science for available information on the interrelationship between metabolomics and immunity in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the effect of nanoparticles on metabolite levels. It was clear that SARS-CoV-2 disrupted several pathways to ensure a sufficient supply of its building blocks to facilitate its replication. Such information can help in developing treatment strategies against viral infections and COVID-19 based on interventions that overcome these metabolic changes. Furthermore, it showed that even drug-free nanoparticles can exert an influence on biological systems as evidenced by metabolomics.

A Meta-summary and Bioinformatic Analysis Identified Interleukin 6 as a Master Regulator of COVID-19 Severity Biomarkers

With the rising demand for improved COVID-19 disease monitoring and prognostic markers, studies have aimed to identify biomarkers using a range of screening methods. However, the selection of biomarkers for validation from large datasets may result in potentially important biomarkers being overlooked when datasets are considered in isolation. Here, we have utilized a meta-summary approach to investigate COVID-19 biomarker datasets to identify conserved biomarkers of COVID-19 severity. This approach identified a panel of 17 proteins that showed a consistent direction of change across two or more datasets. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis of these proteins highlighted a range of enriched biological processes that include inflammatory responses and compromised integrity of physiological systems including cardiovascular, neurological, and metabolic. A panel of upstream regulators of the COVID-19 severity biomarkers were identified, including chemical compounds currently under investigation for COVID-19 treatment. One of the upstream regulators, interleukin 6 (IL6), was identified as a “master regulator” of the severity biomarkers. COVID-19 disease severity is intensified due to the extreme viral immunological reaction that results in increased inflammatory biomarkers and cytokine storm. Since IL6 is the primary stimulator of cytokines, it could be used independently as a biomarker in determining COVID-19 disease progression, in addition to a potential therapeutic approach targeting IL6. The array of upstream regulators of the severity biomarkers identified here serve as attractive candidates for the development of new therapeutic approaches to treating COVID-19. In addition, the findings from this study highlight COVID-19 severity biomarkers which represent promising, robust biomarkers for future validation studies for their use in defining and monitoring disease severity and patient prognosis.

Gene Networks of Hyperglycemia, Diabetic Complications, and Human Proteins Targeted by SARS-CoV-2: What Is the Molecular Basis for Comorbidity?

People with diabetes are more likely to have severe COVID-19 compared to the general population. Moreover, diabetes and COVID-19 demonstrate a certain parallelism in the mechanisms and organ damage. In this work, we applied bioinformatics analysis of associative molecular networks to identify key molecules and pathophysiological processes that determine SARS-CoV-2-induced disorders in patients with diabetes. Using text-mining-based approaches and ANDSystem as a bioinformatics tool, we reconstructed and matched networks related to hyperglycemia, diabetic complications, insulin resistance, and beta cell dysfunction with networks of SARS-CoV-2-targeted proteins. The latter included SARS-CoV-2 entry receptors (ACE2 and DPP4), SARS-CoV-2 entry associated proteases (TMPRSS2, CTSB, and CTSL), and 332 human intracellular proteins interacting with SARS-CoV-2. A number of genes/proteins targeted by SARS-CoV-2 (ACE2, BRD2, COMT, CTSB, CTSL, DNMT1, DPP4, ERP44, F2RL1, GDF15, GPX1, HDAC2, HMOX1, HYOU1, IDE, LOX, NUTF2, PCNT, PLAT, RAB10, RHOA, SCARB1, and SELENOS) were found in the networks of vascular diabetic complications and insulin resistance. According to the Gene Ontology enrichment analysis, the defined molecules are involved in the response to hypoxia, reactive oxygen species metabolism, immune and inflammatory response, regulation of angiogenesis, platelet degranulation, and other processes. The results expand the understanding of the molecular basis of diabetes and COVID-19 comorbidity.