SARS-CoV2 Infection Alters Tryptophan Catabolism and Phospholipid Metabolism

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has so far infected hundreds of million individuals, with several million deaths worldwide. The lack of understanding of the disease pathophysiology and the host’s immune response has resulted in this rapid spread of the disease on a global scale. In this respect, we employed UPLC-MS to compare the metabolites in the serum from COVID-19-positive patients and COVID-19-recovered subjects to determine the metabolic changes responsible for an infection. Our investigations revealed significant increase in the levels of serum phospholipids including sphingomyelins, phosphatidylcholines and arachidonic acid in the serum of COVID-19-positive patients as compared to COVID-19-recovered individuals. We further show increased levels of tryptophan and its metabolites in the serum of COVID-19-positive patients thus emphasizing the role of tryptophan metabolism in the disease pathogenesis of COVID-19. Future studies are required to determine the changes in the lipid and tryptophan metabolism at various stages of COVID-19 disease development, progression and recovery to better understand the host–pathogen interaction and the long-term effects of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) infection in humans.