Multi-omic Profiling of Plasma Identify Biomarkers and Pathogenesis of COVID-19 in Children

ABSTRACT: Although people of all ages are susceptible to COVID-19, children usually develop less severe disease than adults. Little is known about the pathogenesis of COVID-19 in children. Herein, we conduct the plasma proteomic and metabolomic profiling of a cohort of COVID-19 children patients with mild symptoms, and uncovered that many proteins involved in immune response are significantly up-regulated in a stronger extent than in adults with COVID-19. Interestingly, more molecules involved in protective processes of reducing inflammation are also stimulated to antagonize the deleterious effect in both proteomic and metabolomic levels. By developing a machine learning-based pipeline, we prioritize two set of biomarker combinations, and identify 5 proteins and 5 metabolites as potentially children-specific biomarkers. Further experiments demonstrate these protective metabolites not only inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, but also suppress the viral replication. Taken together, our study not only discover the protective mechanisms in children with COVID-19, but also shed light on potential therapies targets for treating COVID-19.

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens

SUBMITTER: Xi Zhou  

PROVIDER: PXD026962 | iProX | Mon Jun 28 00:00:00 BST 2021

REPOSITORIES: iProX