Plasma Metabolomic and Lipidomic Alterations Associated with COVID-19

Wu, D.; Shu, T.; Yang, X.; Song, J.-X.; Zhang, M.; Wen, L.; Huang, M.; Yu, Y.; Yang, Q.; Zhu, T.; Xu, J.; Mu, J.; Wang, Y.; Wang, H.; Tang, T.; Ren, Y.; Wu, Y.; Qiu, Y.; Zhang, D.-Y.; Shang, Y.; Zhou, X.

The pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global public health crisis. COVID-19 is marked by its rapid progression from mild to severe conditions, particularly in the absence of adequate medical care. However, the physiological changes associated with COVID-19 are barely understood. In this study, we performed untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic analyses of plasma from a cohort of COVID-19 patients who had experienced different symptoms. We found the metabolite and lipid alterations exhibit apparent correlation with the course of disease in these COVID-19 patients, indicating that the development of COVID-19 affected patient metabolism. Moreover, many of the metabolite and lipid alterations, particularly ones associated with hepatic functions, have been found to align with the progress and severity of COVID-19. This work provides valuable knowledge about blood biomarkers associated with COVID-19 and potential therapeutic targets, and presents important resource for further studies of COVID-19 pathogenesis.