Proteomic and Metabolomic Investigation of COVID-19 Patients with Elevated Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase

Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) has been established as a prognostic indicator given its differential expression in COVID-19 patients. However, the molecular mechanisms underneath remain poorly understood. In this study, 144 COVID-19 patients were enrolled to monitor the clinical and laboratory parameters over three weeks. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was shown elevated in the COVID-19 patients on admission and declined throughout disease course, and its ability to classify patient severity outperformed other biochemical indicators. A threshold of 247 U/L serum LDH on admission was determined for severity prognosis. Next, we classified a subset of 14 patients into high- and low-risk groups based on serum LDH expression and compared their quantitative serum proteomic and metabolomic differences. The results found COVID-19 patients with high serum LDH exhibited differentially expressed blood coagulation and immune responses including acute inflammatory responses, platelet degranulation, complement cascade, as well as multiple different metabolic responses including lipid metabolism, protein ubiquitination and pyruvate fermentation. Specifically, activation of hypoxia responses was highlighted in patients with high LDH expressions. Taken together, our data showed that serum LDH levels are associated COVID-19 severity, and that elevated serum LDH might be consequences of hypoxia and tissue injuries induced by inflammation.

Clinical efifcacy and inlfuencing factors of IFN-αtreatment on chronic hepatitis B / 中国生化药物杂志

Objective To study the efifcacy of interferon IFN-αon chronic hepatitis B, analyze the inlfuencing factors of therapeutic effect. Methods 62 cases with hepatitis B collected in our hospital from January 2008 to December 2012 were treated with interferon IFN-αfor one year, and divided into response group and non-response group according to the efficacy, biochemical indicators, viral load, host factors of patients in both two groups were analyzed. Results After one year’s treatment, the response patients were 38 cases(61.29%), non-response patients were 24 cases(38.71%). The male to female ratio in response group was 26/12, 13/11 in non-response group. The mean disease duration in response group was (3.3 ± 1.3)years, (5.4 ± 1.4) years in non-response group. The mean age in response group was (31.9 ± 8.6) years, (32.7 ± 5.6) years in non-response group. The difference between two groups was statistically signiifcant(P<0.05) Conclusion There is good therapeutic effect for most patients. and no reply for some patients. Analysing clinical data and the results of the study, we found that the course of disease,age, male/female ratio and level of ALT and AST are inlfuencing factors in interferon IFN-αtreatment for chronic hepatitis B.They can be use to predict clinical effect of interferon IFN-αtreatment for chronic hepatitis B.