Abnormal upregulation of cardiovascular disease biomarker PLA2G7 induced by proinflammatory macrophages in COVID-19 patients

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-85848-5
• Publication Date: 2021-03-24T11:04:29Z
• Authors: Yang Li; Yongzhong Jiang; Yi Zhang; Naizhe Li; Qiangling Yin; Linlin Liu; Xin Lv; Yan Liu; Aqian Li; Bin Fang; Jiajia Li; Hengping Ye; Gang Yang; Xiaoxian Cui; Yang Liu; Yuanyuan Qu; Chuan Li; Jiandong Li; Dexin Li; Zhongtao Gai; Shiwen Wang; Faxian Zhan; Mifang Liang
• Keywords: Transcriptional Activation; China; Science; Immunology; Infectious disease (medical specialty); FOS: Health sciences; Coronavirus Disease 2019 Research; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Biochemistry; Article; Coronavirus Disease 2019; Health Sciences; Neurological Manifestations of COVID-19 Infection; Data Mining; Humans; Disease; Internal medicine; Inflammation; Corona Virus; SARS-CoV-2; Macrophages; FOS: Clinical medicine; Q; R; COVID-19; Biomarker; Pneumonia; Proinflammatory cytokine; Up-Regulation; 3. Good health; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Chemistry; Infectious Diseases; Neurology; Cardiovascular Diseases; 1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase; Medicine; Biomarkers

AbstractHigh rate of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been reported among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Importantly, CVD, as one of the comorbidities, could also increase the risks of the severity of COVID-19. Here we identified phospholipase A2 group VII (PLA2G7), a well-studied CVD biomarker, as a hub gene in COVID-19 though an integrated hypothesis-free genomic analysis on nasal swabs (n = 486) from patients with COVID-19. PLA2G7 was further found to be predominantly expressed by proinflammatory macrophages in lungs emerging with progression of COVID-19. In the validation stage, RNA level of PLA2G7 was identified in nasal swabs from both COVID-19 and pneumonia patients, other than health individuals. The positive rate of PLA2G7 were correlated with not only viral loads but also severity of pneumonia in non-COVID-19 patients. Serum protein levels of PLA2G7 were found to be elevated and beyond the normal limit in COVID-19 patients, especially among those re-positive patients. We identified and validated PLA2G7, a biomarker for CVD, was abnormally enhanced in COVID-19 at both nucleotide and protein aspects. These findings provided indications into the prevalence of cardiovascular involvements seen in patients with COVID-19. PLA2G7 could be a potential prognostic and therapeutic target in COVID-19.