Altered microRNA expression in COVID-19 patients enables identification of SARS-CoV-2 infection

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009759
• Publication Date: 2021-07-28T17:25:06Z
• Authors: Ryan J. Farr; Christina L. Rootes; Louise C. Rowntree; Thi H. O. Nguyen; Luca Hensen; Lukasz Kedzierski; Allen C. Cheng; Katherine Kedzierska; Gough G. Au; Glenn A. Marsh; Seshadri S. Vasan; Chwan Hong Foo; Christopher Cowled; Cameron R. Stewart
• Keywords: Pathogenesis

The host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection provide insights into both viral pathogenesis and patient management. host-encoded microRNA (miRNA) infection, however, remains poorly defined. Here we profiled circulating miRNAs from ten COVID-19 patients sampled longitudinally age gender matched healthy donors. We observed 55 that were altered in during early-stage disease, with the inflammatory miR-31-5p most strongly upregulated. Supervised machine learning analysis revealed a three-miRNA signature (miR-423-5p, miR-23a-3p miR-195-5p) independently classified cases an accuracy of 99.9%. In ferret model, again detected 99.7% accuracy, distinguished influenza A (H1N1) controls 95% accuracy. Distinct miRNA profiles also requiring oxygenation. This study demonstrates induces robust could improve detection