miRNAs as a Potential Biomarker in the COVID-19 Infection and Complications Course, Severity, and Outcome

Abstract

During the last three years, since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant number of scientific publications have focused on resolving susceptibility to the infection, as well as the course of the disease and potential long-term complications. COVID-19 is widely considered as a multisystem disease and a variety of socioeconomic, medical, and genetic/epigenetic factors may contribute to the disease severity and outcome. Furthermore, the SARS-COV-2 infection may trigger pathological processes and accelerate underlying conditions to clinical entities. The development of specific and sensitive biomarkers that are easy to obtain will allow for patient stratification, prevention, prognosis, and more individualized treatments for COVID-19. miRNAs are proposed as promising biomarkers for different aspects of COVID-19 disease (susceptibility, severity, complication course, outcome, and therapeutic possibilities). This review summarizes the most relevant findings concerning miRNA involvement in COVID-19 pathology. Additionally, the role of miRNAs in wide range of complications due to accompanied and/or underlying health conditions is discussed. The importance of understanding the functional relationships between different conditions, such as pregnancy, obesity, or neurological diseases, with COVID-19 is also highlighted.

Keywords: COVID-19; miRNA; neurological diseases; obesity; pregnancy.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of COVID-19 correlation with neurological diseases, based on study findings.

Figure 2

Numbers of overlapping of representative miRNAs in several different physiologically altered conditions, associated with COVID-19. The alternatively expressed miRNAs are presented in text bubbles. COV-19—covid-19; OBST—obesity; PRGN—pregnancy; NEURO—neurological diseases.