Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, leads to symptoms ranging from asymptomatic disease to death. Although males are more susceptible to severe symptoms and higher mortality due to COVID-19, patient sex has rarely been examined. Sex-associated metabolic changes may implicate novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to treat COVID-19. Here, using serum samples, we performed global metabolomic analyses of uninfected and SARS-CoV-2-positive male and female patients with severe COVID-19. Key metabolic pathways that demonstrated robust sex differences in COVID-19 groups, but not in controls, involved lipid metabolism, pentose pathway, bile acid metabolism, and microbiome-related metabolism of aromatic amino acids, including tryptophan and tyrosine. Unsupervised statistical analysis showed a profound sexual dimorphism in correlations between patient-specific clinical parameters and their global metabolic profiles. Identification of sex-specific metabolic changes in severe COVID-19 patients is an important knowledge source for researchers striving for development of potential sex-associated biomarkers and druggable targets for COVID-19 patients.
【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, Biomarker, Mortality, severe COVID-19, knowledge, Sex, Symptom, metabolism, male, Patient, amino acids, death, pathway, Tryptophan, sexual dimorphism, target, correlation, Sex difference, Asymptomatic disease, disease, change, therapeutic targets, COVID-19 patients, lipid metabolism, metabolic pathways, statistical analysis, identification, therapeutic target, leads, tyrosine, bile acid, aromatic amino acids, metabolic pathway, serum samples, severe symptoms, severe COVID-19 patients, profiles, correlations, treat, clinical parameter, researcher, uninfected, susceptible, controls, metabolomic, pentose, robust, performed, examined, caused, involved, changes in, demonstrated, analysis, groups, severe symptom, female patient, severe COVID-19 patient, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19 patient, profile, metabolomic,