Back to Search
Start Over
Evidence of Structural Protein Damage and Membrane Lipid Remodeling in Red Blood Cells from COVID-19 Patients.
- Source :
-
Journal of proteome research [J Proteome Res] 2020 Nov 06; Vol. 19 (11), pp. 4455-4469. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Oct 26. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- The SARS-CoV-2 beta coronavirus is the etiological driver of COVID-19 disease, which is primarily characterized by shortness of breath, persistent dry cough, and fever. Because they transport oxygen, red blood cells (RBCs) may play a role in the severity of hypoxemia in COVID-19 patients. The present study combines state-of-the-art metabolomics, proteomics, and lipidomics approaches to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on RBCs from 23 healthy subjects and 29 molecularly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. RBCs from COVID-19 patients had increased levels of glycolytic intermediates, accompanied by oxidation and fragmentation of ankyrin, spectrin beta, and the N-terminal cytosolic domain of band 3 (AE1). Significantly altered lipid metabolism was also observed, in particular, short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids, acyl-carnitines, and sphingolipids. Nonetheless, there were no alterations of clinical hematological parameters, such as RBC count, hematocrit, or mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, with only minor increases in mean corpuscular volume. Taken together, these results suggest a significant impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on RBC structural membrane homeostasis at the protein and lipid levels. Increases in RBC glycolytic metabolites are consistent with a theoretically improved capacity of hemoglobin to off-load oxygen as a function of allosteric modulation by high-energy phosphate compounds, perhaps to counteract COVID-19-induced hypoxia. Conversely, because the N-terminus of AE1 stabilizes deoxyhemoglobin and finely tunes oxygen off-loading and metabolic rewiring toward the hexose monophosphate shunt, RBCs from COVID-19 patients may be less capable of responding to environmental variations in hemoglobin oxygen saturation/oxidant stress when traveling from the lungs to peripheral capillaries and vice versa.
- Subjects :
- Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Humans
Lipidomics
Membrane Proteins analysis
Membrane Proteins chemistry
Membrane Proteins metabolism
Metabolome physiology
Models, Molecular
Proteome analysis
Proteome chemistry
Proteome metabolism
SARS-CoV-2
Coronavirus Infections blood
Coronavirus Infections pathology
Coronavirus Infections physiopathology
Erythrocytes chemistry
Erythrocytes cytology
Erythrocytes pathology
Membrane Lipids analysis
Membrane Lipids chemistry
Membrane Lipids metabolism
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral blood
Pneumonia, Viral pathology
Pneumonia, Viral physiopathology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1535-3907
- Volume :
- 19
- Issue :
- 11
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of proteome research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 33103907
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00606