COVID-19 and alcohol use disorder: putative differential gene expression patterns that might be associated with neurological complications

Abstract

Background: Several lines of evidence suggest that SARS-CoV-2 invasion of the central nervous system leads to meningitis and encephalopathy syndromes. Additionally, chronic alcoholics were found to be at a higher risk of developing mental health problems and serious neurological manifestations, if exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: Herein, we studied RNA seq data from alcoholics' brain tissue and COVID-19 patient's brain tissue to identify the common differentially expressed genes.

Results: Overlap analysis depicted the expression of seven genes (GHRL, SLN, VGF, IL1RL1, NPTX2, PDYN, and RPRML) that were significantly upregulated in both groups. Along with these, protein-protein interaction analysis revealed 10 other key molecules with strong interactions with the aforementioned genes.

Conclusions: Taken together with the functional effect of these genes, we suggest a strong molecular link between COVID-19-induced severities and neurological impairment in patients suffering from alcohol abuse disorder. These findings emphasize the importance of identifying chronic alcoholism as a risk factor for developing cognitive and memory impairment in COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: Alcoholism; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; in silico analysis; neurological manifestations.