ABSTRACT
Understanding pathways that might impact coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifestations and disease outcomes is necessary for better disease management and for therapeutic development. Here, we analyzed alterations in sphingolipid (SL) levels upon infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 infection induced elevation of SL levels in both cells and sera of infected mice. A significant increase in glycosphingolipid levels was induced early post SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was essential for viral replication. This elevation could be reversed by treatment with glucosylceramide synthase inhibitors. Levels of sphinganine, sphingosine, GA1, and GM3 were significantly increased in both cells and the murine model upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. The potential involvement of SLs in COVID-19 pathology is discussed.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/metabolism , Disease Models, Animal , Sphingolipids/metabolism , Virus Replication/physiology , Animals , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19/virology , Chlorocebus aethiops , Chromatography, Liquid/methods , Dioxanes/pharmacology , Gangliosides/blood , Gangliosides/metabolism , Glucosyltransferases/antagonists & inhibitors , Glucosyltransferases/metabolism , Humans , Mass Spectrometry/methods , Mice, Transgenic , Pyrrolidines/pharmacology , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/physiology , Sphingolipids/blood , Sphingosine/analogs & derivatives , Sphingosine/blood , Sphingosine/metabolism , Vero Cells , Virus Replication/drug effectsABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents an unprecedented threat to global public health. Herein, we utilized a combination of targeted and untargeted tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the plasma lipidome and metabolome in mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 patients and healthy controls. A panel of 10 plasma metabolites effectively distinguished COVID-19 patients from healthy controls (AUC = 0.975). Plasma lipidome of COVID-19 resembled that of monosialodihexosyl ganglioside (GM3)-enriched exosomes, with enhanced levels of sphingomyelins (SMs) and GM3s, and reduced diacylglycerols (DAGs). Systems evaluation of metabolic dysregulation in COVID-19 was performed using multiscale embedded differential correlation network analyses. Using exosomes isolated from the same cohort, we demonstrated that exosomes of COVID-19 patients with elevating disease severity were increasingly enriched in GM3s. Our work suggests that GM3-enriched exosomes may partake in pathological processes related to COVID-19 pathogenesis and presents the largest repository on the plasma lipidome and metabolome distinct to COVID-19.