ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has sparked a global pandemic with severe complications and high morbidity rate. Neurological symptoms in COVID-19 patients, and neurological sequelae post COVID-19 recovery have been extensively reported. Yet, neurological molecular signature and signaling pathways that are affected in the central nervous system (CNS) of COVID-19 severe patients remain still unknown and need to be identified. Plasma samples from 49 severe COVID-19 patients, 50 mild COVID-19 patients, and 40 healthy controls were subjected to Olink proteomics analysis of 184 CNS-enriched proteins. By using a multi-approach bioinformatics analysis, we identified a 34-neurological protein signature for COVID-19 severity and unveiled dysregulated neurological pathways in severe cases. Here, we identified a new neurological protein signature for severe COVID-19 that was validated in different independent cohorts using blood and postmortem brain samples and shown to correlate with neurological diseases and pharmacological drugs. This protein signature could potentially aid the development of prognostic and diagnostic tools for neurological complications in post-COVID-19 convalescent patients with long term neurological sequelae.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Nervous System Diseases , Humans , COVID-19/complications , SARS-CoV-2 , Nervous System Diseases/etiology , Central Nervous System , BrainABSTRACT
Following the unprecedented global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, multiple medical countermeasures ramped up to combat the virus and contain the spread of the pandemic. Despite continued uncertainty and a lack of clarity about the COVID-19, researchers have made tremendous strides in the development of prevention and treatment strategies. In this article, we focus on the use of convalescent plasma as therapeutic approach against COVID-19 infection.