Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Acibadem University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Acibadem Labmed Clinical Laboratories, Istanbul, Turkey.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 20;15(10):e0240012. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240012. eCollection 2020.
COVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared throughout the World and currently affected more than 9 million people and caused the death of around 470,000 patients. The novel strain of the coronavirus disease is transmittable at a devastating rate with a high rate of severe hospitalization even more so for the elderly population. Naso-oro-pharyngeal swab samples as the first step towards detecting suspected infection of SARS-CoV-2 provides a non-invasive method for PCR testing at a high confidence rate. Furthermore, proteomics analysis of PCR positive and negative naso-oropharyngeal samples provides information on the molecular level which highlights disease pathology. Samples from 15 PCR positive cases and 15 PCR negative cases were analyzed with nanoLC-MS/MS to identify the differentially expressed proteins. Proteomic analyses identified 207 proteins across the sample set and 17 of them were statistically significant. Protein-protein interaction analyses emphasized pathways like Neutrophil degranulation, Innate Immune System, Antimicrobial Peptides. Neutrophil Elastase (ELANE), Azurocidin (AZU1), Myeloperoxidase (MPO), Myeloblastin (PRTN3), Cathepsin G (CTSG) and Transcobalamine-1 (TCN1) were found to be significantly altered in naso-oropharyngeal samples of SARS-CoV-2 patients. The identified proteins are linked to alteration in the innate immune system specifically via neutrophil degranulation and NETosis.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）或严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）在全球出现，目前已感染超过900万人，并导致约47万名患者死亡。这种新型冠状病毒病传播速度极快，严重住院率很高，老年人群更是如此。鼻咽拭子样本作为检测SARS-CoV-2疑似感染的第一步，为PCR检测提供了一种非侵入性方法，准确率很高。此外，对PCR阳性和阴性鼻咽样本进行蛋白质组学分析，可在分子水平上提供信息，突出疾病病理。对15例PCR阳性病例和15例PCR阴性病例的样本进行了nanoLC-MS/MS分析，以鉴定差异表达的蛋白质。蛋白质组学分析在整个样本集中鉴定出207种蛋白质，其中17种具有统计学意义。蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用分析强调了中性粒细胞脱颗粒、先天免疫系统、抗菌肽等途径。发现中性粒细胞弹性蛋白酶（ELANE）、天青杀素（AZU1）、髓过氧化物酶（MPO）、髓母细胞素（PRTN3）、组织蛋白酶G（CTSG）和钴胺素转运蛋白-1（TCN1）在SARS-CoV-2患者的鼻咽样本中发生了显著变化。所鉴定的蛋白质与先天免疫系统的改变有关，特别是通过中性粒细胞脱颗粒和中性粒细胞胞外诱捕网形成。
