Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by acute severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). With the global pandemic of COVID-19, it is very important to explore the biomarker , which is related to COVID-19. Because the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are diverse, there are many challenges in the treatment of COVID-19. Finding biomarkers related to the severity of COVID-19 disease will help study the pathogenesis and clinical heterogeneity of COVID-19, while also helping to prevent and treat severe COVID-19. Currently, it is believed that biological responses (such as immune hyperactivity and viral factors) are associated with the occurrence of severe COVID-19. Studies have shown that during the biological response of COVID-19, some biologically active lipids are produced, which are involved in the occurrence and regulation of COVID-19 inflammation and immune response. In this study, the authors and their team focused on sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids.
On September 21, 2022, Clinical and Translational Medicine magazine published online the latest results of Professor Yutaka Yatomi from the University of Tokyo, Japan "Dynamicmodulations of sphinopirids and glycerophospholipids in COVID-19" [6] ( Click at the end of the article "Read the original text" to download the full PDF ). One of the characteristics of
COVID-19 is its diverse clinical manifestations. Therefore, in-depth discussion of biomarkers related to the severity of COVID-19 disease will help study the pathogenesis and clinical heterogeneity of COVID-19, and will also help prevent and treat severe COVID-19. Sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids have very important biological functions. This study aims to explore the regulation of sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids in COVID-19.
The authors and their team collected 887 plasma from 215 COVID-19 patients, as well as 115 control plasma from patients without infectious diseases, and 109 control plasma from other infectious patients (not COVID-19 infection). The levels of sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids in these plasma were then tested separately.
results show that there is dynamic regulation of plasma sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids according to the course of COVID-19 and the severity of disease. The increase in C16:0 ceramide and lysophosphatidylinositol, and the decrease in C18:1 ceramide, dihydroxysphingosinol, lysophosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylinositol are COVID-19-specific. Phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholines with long unsaturated acetyl chains were negatively correlated with the severity of COVID-19. However, lysophosphoylethanolamine and phosphoylethanolamine are positively correlated with the severity of COVID-19 in the early stages of the disease. Hemolytic phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylcholine showed strong negative correlation with CRP. However, phosphoylethanolamine is strongly positively correlated with CRP. C16:0 ceramides and lysophosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamines with long unsaturated acetyl chains were negatively correlated with D dimers. Phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol with short acetyl chains were positively correlated with D dimers. In predicting the severity of future COVID-19 disease, multiple phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin are better biomarkers in the early stages of COVID-19 disease compared with CRP and D dimers. Mice trials showed that lipid regulation in heavy COVID-19 mice was more similar to lipid regulation in lipopolysaccharide treated mice compared with lipopolysaccharide , tissue factor or histone treatment.
In short, the exploration of sphingomyelin and glycerol phospholipids carried out in this research will help the future development of COVID-19 test detection methods, accurately predict the severity of COVID-19 and the development of new drugs for acute and severe COVID-19.
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