Omics-Driven Systems Interrogation of Metabolic Dysregulation in COVID-19 Pathogenesis

Highlights

• Quantitative lipidomic and metabolomic profiling of COVID-19 plasma

• Plasma metabolite panel distinguished COVID-19 from healthy controls (AUC = 0.975)

• Differential correlation analyses uncovered metabolic dysregulation in COVID-19

• GM3-enriched exosomes are positively correlated with COVID-19 pathogenesis

Summary

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents an unprecedented threat to global public health. Herein, we utilized a combination of targeted and untargeted tandem mass spectrometry to analyze the plasma lipidome and metabolome in mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 patients and healthy controls. A panel of 10 plasma metabolites effectively distinguished COVID-19 patients from healthy controls (AUC = 0.975). Plasma lipidome of COVID-19 resembled that of monosialodihexosyl ganglioside (GM3)-enriched exosomes, with enhanced levels of sphingomyelins (SMs) and GM3s, and reduced diacylglycerols (DAGs). Systems evaluation of metabolic dysregulation in COVID-19 was performed using multiscale embedded differential correlation network analyses. Using exosomes isolated from the same cohort, we demonstrated that exosomes of COVID-19 patients with elevating disease severity were increasingly enriched in GM3s. Our work suggests that GM3-enriched exosomes may partake in pathological processes related to COVID-19 pathogenesis and presents the largest repository on the plasma lipidome and metabolome distinct to COVID-19.