ALTERED MOLECULAR PATHWAYS OBSERVED IN NASO-OROPHARYNGEAL SAMPLES OF SARS-CoV-2 PATIENTS

BackgroundCOVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared throughout the World and currently affected more than 3.6 million people and caused the death of around 252,000 people. 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. Currently around 50,000 patients are in a seriously critical situation. Although 1.2 million patients recovered from the disease there are still more than 2.1 Million active cases. 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 nasooropharyngeal samples provides information on the molecular level which highlights disease pathology. MethodSamples from 15 PCR positive cases and 15 PCR negative cases were analyzed with nanoLC-MS/MS to identify the differentially expressed proteins. ResultsProteomic 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. ConclusionNeutrophil 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.