Complete title: Value of a secretomic approach for distinguishing
patients with COVID-19 viral pneumonia among patients with respiratory
distress admitted to intensive care unit Shortened title: Secretomic to
distinguish COVID-19 patients
Abstract
Introduction : In intensive care units,
COVID-19 viral pneumonia patients (VPP) present symptoms similar to
those of other patients with non-viral infection (NV-ICU). To better
manage VPP, it is therefore interesting to better understand the
molecular pathophysiology of viral pneumonia and to search for
biomarkers that may clarify the diagnosis. The secretome being a set of
proteins secreted by cells in response to stimuli represents an
opportunity to discover new biomarkers. Aims :
Identify secretomic signatures of VPP with those NV-ICU.
Methods : Plasma samples and clinical data from
NV-ICU (n=104), VPP (n=30) or healthy donors (HD, n=20) were collected
at Nantes Hospital (France) upon admission. Samples were enriched for
the low-abundant proteins and analyzed using non-target mass
spectrometry. Specifically deregulated proteins (DEP) in VPP
versus NV-ICU were selected. Combinations of 2 to 4 DEPs were
established. Results : The differences in
secretome profiles of the VPP and NV-ICU groups were highlighted.
Forty-one DEPs were specifically identified in VPP compared to NV-ICU.
Five combinations of 3 proteins with a receiver operating characteristic
curve presenting an area under the curve of 95.0% were identified.
Conclusion: This study identifies five combinations of
candidate biomarkers in VPP compared to NV-ICU that may help distinguish
the underlying causal molecular alterations.