New Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of COVID-19: Amino Acids

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is still spreading rapidly around the world and early detection before its severe symptoms begin is essential but remains challenging. There is also very little data on the effects of covid-19 on amino acid metabolism. The aim of this study is to analyze the free amino acid profile in the blood serum of covid-19 patients and to determine their biomarker potential for diagnosis.

Materials and Methods: In this study, blood samples were taken from 30 covid-19 patients and 30 healthy individuals and their amino acid profile was examined by LC-MS/MS. Biomarker and pathway analyzes from multivariate statistical analyzes were performed with the MetaboAnalyst program.

Results: Among the amino acids we analyzed, 6 of them were amino acids with strong potential to be used in the diagnosis of covid-19. According to the AUC value(>0.800), these amino acids are alpha-aminoadipic acid, arginine, proline, alanine, sarcosine and citrulline, respectively. In addition, according to the pathway analysis, it was learned that arginine and proline metabolisms were significantly impaired in covid-19 disease (p<0.001 and impact value: 0.356).

Conclusions: In this study, changes in amino acids in covid-19 patients showed that they may be important in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Alpha-aminoadipic acid may be an excellent candidate for diagnosis. A diet rich in depleted amino acids, especially arginine and proline amino acids, may show successful results in the treatment.