Proteomic characteristics of the treatment trajectory of patients with COVID-19.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has prompted global concern due to its profound impact on public health and the economy. Effective treatment of COVID-19 patients in the acute phase or of those with long COVID is a major challenge. Using data-independent acquisition (DIA) technology, we performed proteomic profiling on plasma samples from 22 COVID-19 patients and six healthy controls at Dazhou Central Hospital. Random forest and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithms were used for analysis at various COVID-19 treatment stages. We identified 79 proteins that were differentially expressed between COVID-19 patients and healthy controls, mainly involving pathways associated with cell processes and binding. Across different treatment stages of COVID-19, five proteins-PI16, GPLD1, IGFBP3, KRT19, and VCAM1-were identified as potential molecular markers for dynamic disease monitoring. Furthermore, the proteins BTD, APOM, IGKV2-28, VWF, C4BPA, and C7 were identified as candidate biomarkers for distinguishing between SARS-CoV-2 positivity and negativity. Analysis of protein change profiles between the follow-up and healthy control groups highlighted cardiovascular changes as a concern for patients recovering from COVID-19. Our study revealed the infection profiles of SARS-CoV-2 at the protein expression level comparing different phases of COVID-19. DIA mass spectrometry analysis of plasma samples from COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment identified key proteins involved in signaling pathways that might be used as markers of the recovery phase. These findings provide insight for the development of therapy options and suggest potential blood biomarkers for COVID-19.