Fetal effects of mild maternal COVID-19 infection: metabolomic profiling of cord blood.
Metabolomics
; 19(4): 41, 2023 04 15.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2304970
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
The impact of maternal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on fetal health remains to be precisely characterized.OBJECTIVES:
Using metabolomic profiling of newborn umbilical cord blood, we aimed to investigate the potential fetal biological consequences of maternal COVID-19 infection.METHODS:
Cord blood plasma samples from 23 mild COVID-19 cases (mother infected/newborn negative) and 23 gestational age-matched controls were analyzed using nuclear magnetic spectroscopy and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Metabolite set enrichment analysis (MSEA) was used to evaluate altered biochemical pathways due to COVID-19 intrauterine exposure. Logistic regression models were developed using metabolites to predict intrauterine exposure.RESULTS:
Significant concentration differences between groups (p-value < 0.05) were observed in 19 metabolites. Elevated levels of glucocorticoids, pyruvate, lactate, purine metabolites, phenylalanine, and branched-chain amino acids of valine and isoleucine were discovered in cases while ceramide subclasses were decreased. The top metabolite model including cortisol and ceramide (d181/230) achieved an Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics curve (95% CI) = 0.841 (0.725-0.957) for detecting fetal exposure to maternal COVID-19 infection. MSEA highlighted steroidogenesis, pyruvate metabolism, gluconeogenesis, and the Warburg effect as the major perturbed metabolic pathways (p-value < 0.05). These changes indicate fetal increased oxidative metabolism, hyperinsulinemia, and inflammatory response.CONCLUSION:
We present fetal biochemical changes related to intrauterine inflammation and altered energy metabolism in cases of mild maternal COVID-19 infection despite the absence of viral infection. Elucidation of the long-term consequences of these findings is imperative considering the large number of exposures in the population.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Fetal Blood
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant, Newborn
/
Pregnancy
Language:
English
Journal:
Metabolomics
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11306-023-01988-x
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