Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in cardiovascular and immune systems. Quantification of blood nitrite and nitrate, two relatively stable metabolites of NO (generally as NO x ), has been acknowledged, in part, representing NO bioactivity. Dysregulation of NO x had been reported in SARS-CoV-2 infected populations, but whether patients recovered from COVID-19 disease present with restored NO x is unknown. In this study, serum NO 2 – and NO 3 – were quantified and analyzed among 109 recovered adults in comparison to a control group of 166 uninfected adults. Nitrite or nitrate levels were not significantly different among mild-, common-, severe- and critical-type patients. However, these recovered patients had dramatically lower NO 2 – and NO 2 – /NO 3 – than the uninfected group (p < 0.0001), with significantly higher NO 3 – levels (p = 0.0023) than the uninfected group. Nitrate and nitrite/nitrate were positively and negatively correlated with patient age, respectively, with age 65 being a turning point among recovered patients. These results indicate that low NO 2 – , low NO 2 – /NO 3 – and high NO 3 – may be potential biomarkers of long-term poor or irreversible outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 infection. It suggests that NO metabolites might serve as a predictor to track the health status of recovered COVID-19 patients, highlighting the need to elucidate the role of NO after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Keywords: Biomarker; COVID-19; Long-term effect; Nitrate; Nitric oxide; Nitrite.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Biomarker, nitric oxide, Long-term effect, Nitrate, Nitrite., 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Biomarker, nitric oxide, SARS-COV-2 infection, outcome, COVID-19 disease, serum, Adults, Patient, Mild, age, Health status, recovered patients, patients, metabolite, Blood, Nitrate, Potential biomarker, Recovered COVID-19 patients, dysregulation, patient age, nitrite, Bioactivity, control group, potential biomarkers, immune systems, uninfected, populations, common, recovered patient, analyzed, reported, correlated, significantly higher, representing, restored, highlighting, quantified, not significantly different,