Metabolomic/lipidomic profiling of COVID-19 and individual response to tocilizumab
Gaia Meoni, Veronica Ghini, Laura Maggi, Alessia Vignoli, Alessio Mazzoni, Lorenzo Salvati, Manuela Capone, Anna Vanni, Leonardo Tenori, Paolo Fontanari, Federico Lavorini, Adriano Peris, Alessandro Bartoloni, Francesco Liotta, Lorenzo Cosmi, Claudio Luchinat, Francesco Annunziato, Paola Turano
Abstract
The current pandemic emergence of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) poses a relevant threat to global health. SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by a wide range of clinical manifestations, ranging from absence of symptoms to severe forms that need intensive care treatment. Here, plasma-EDTA samples of 30 patients compared with age- and sex-matched controls were analyzed via untargeted nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomics and lipidomics. With the same approach, the effect of tocilizumab administration was evaluated in a subset of patients. Despite the heterogeneity of the clinical symptoms, COVID-19 patients are characterized by common plasma metabolomic and lipidomic signatures (91.7% and 87.5% accuracy, respectively, when compared to controls). Tocilizumab treatment resulted in at least partial reversion of the metabolic alterations due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, NMR-based metabolomic and lipidomic profiling provides novel insights into the pathophysiological mechanism of human response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and to monitor treatment outcomes.