Proteomic Investigation Reveals Dominant Alterations of Neutrophil Degranulation and mRNA Translation Pathways in COVID-19 Patients

Bankar, Renuka; Suvarna, Kruthi; Ghantasala, Saicharan; Banerjee, Arghya; Biswas, Deeptarup; Choudhury, Manisha; Viswanthram, P.; Salkar, Akanksha; Verma, Ayushi; Singh, Avinash; Mukherjee, Amrita; Pai, Medha Gayathri J.; Roy, Jyotirmoy; Srivastava, Alisha; Badaya, Apoorva; Agrawal, Sachee; Shrivastav, Om; Shastri, Jayanti; Srivastava, Sanjeeva

The altered molecular proteins and pathways in response to COVID-19 infection are still unclear. Here, we performed a comprehensive proteomics-based investigation of nasopharyngeal swab samples from COVID-19 patients to study the host response by employing simple extraction strategies. Few of the host proteins such as Interleukin-6, L-lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, Ferritin and Aspartate aminotransferase were found to be up-regulated only in COVID-19 positive patients using targeted Multiple Reaction Monitoring studies. The most important pathways identified by enrichment analysis were neutrophil degranulation, interleukin-12 signaling pathways and mRNA translation of proteins thus providing the detailed investigation of host response in COVID-19 infection. Thus, we conclude that mass spectrometry-detected host proteins have a potential for disease severity progression; however, suitable validation strategies should be deployed for the clinical translation. Furthermore, the in-silico docking of host proteins involved in the interleukin-12 signaling pathway might aid in COVID-19 therapeutic interventions.