Systemic Perturbations in Amine and Kynurenine Metabolism Associated with Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Inflammatory Cytokine Responses, 2021, Lawlor

[Kalliope]

Medical Express Long COVID affecting more than half of patients six months on

Quotes:
Scientists working at the Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC) have investigated the blood chemistry of patients three months after the acute disease phase of COVID-19 and found persistent systematic changes that relate to ongoing symptoms at six months.

Those symptoms include chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain and loss of sense of smell.

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"Now that we have developed an objective metabolic framework for measuring systemic recovery in COVID-19 patients, we can use this to definitively track whether people are in fact fully recovering from the disease."

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It remains unclear whether PACS is an extension of the COVID-19 disease trajectory or marks the onset of additional, separate chronic disease entities that continue to be driven by the enhanced immune response to the virus.

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Professor Bu Yeap, an Endocrinologist from the University of Western Australia (UWA) who was also involved in the study, said the research marks an important milestone in delivering better care to those affected.

"The results show that there are persisting metabolic and inflammatory changes in patients after acute COVID-19 infection, which relate to some Long COVID symptoms," said Professor Yeap.

This is the study the article is about. Way above my head..
Journal of proteome research: Systemic Pertubations in Amine and Kynurenine Metabolism Associated with Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Inflammatory Cytokine Responses - Lawler et al

Abstract: We performed quantitative metabolic phenotyping of blood plasma in parallel with cytokine/chemokine analysis from participants who were either SARS-CoV-2 (+) (n = 10) or SARS-CoV-2 (-) (n = 49). SARS-CoV-2 positivity was associated with a unique metabolic phenotype and demonstrated a complex systemic response to infection, including severe perturbations in amino acid and kynurenine metabolic pathways. Nine metabolites were elevated in plasma and strongly associated with infection (quinolinic acid, glutamic acid, nicotinic acid, aspartic acid, neopterin, kynurenine, phenylalanine, 3-hydroxykynurenine, and taurine; p < 0.05), while four metabolites were lower in infection (tryptophan, histidine, indole-3-acetic acid, and citrulline; p < 0.05). This signature supports a systemic metabolic phenoconversion following infection, indicating possible neurotoxicity and neurological disruption (elevations of 3-hydroxykynurenine and quinolinic acid) and liver dysfunction (reduction in Fischer’s ratio and elevation of taurine). Finally, we report correlations between the key metabolite changes observed in the disease with concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines showing strong immunometabolic disorder in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.