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. 2024 Nov 29:15:1423182.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1423182. eCollection 2024.

Serum transgelin is a novel prognostic biomarker for COVID-19 patients

Lei Gao  1   2 , Ying Liu  1   2 , Qi-Yuan He  1   2 , Yu Wang  1   2 , Ya-Lin Jiang  3 , Jin Yang  1   2 , Lin Fu  1   2 , Hui Zhao  1   2
Affiliations

Serum transgelin is a novel prognostic biomarker for COVID-19 patients

Lei Gao et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: Transgelin is a central actin-binding protein of the calponin family and involved in the process of multiple pulmonary diseases. Nevertheless, the role of transgelin in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is confusing.

Methods: All 317 COVID-19 patients were recruited from two hospital. Peripheral blood was collected from the fasting patients at the onset and convalescent phases. Demographic data and clinical information were obtained. The expression of serum transgelin was estimated using ELISA.

Results: The expression of serum transgelin on admission was gradually elevated in parallel with the increased severity scores of COVID-19. After treatment, serum transgelin expression was reduced during the convalescent phase. Spearman correlative analyses found that serum transgelin expression was closely correlated to lots of clinical parameters. Besides, serum transgelin was positively associated with severity scores. Follow-up research found that serum higher transgelin on admission elevated the risks of mechanical ventilation, vasoactive agent utilization, ICU admission, death, and longer hospital stays during hospitalization through a prospective cohort study. Additionally, there were similarly predictive capacities for critical patients and death between serum transgelin on admission and severity scores among COVID-19 patients.

Conclusions: The expression of serum transgelin is positively with the severity and poorly prognostic outcomes among COVID-19 patients, indicating that transgelin is implicated in the pathological process of COVID-19. Transgelin can assist in the risk stratification and revealing the pathological mechanisms of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; cohort study; prognosis; severity; transgelin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The expression of serum transgelin in COVID-19 patients with different severity scores. The expression of serum transgelin was measured using ELISA. The difference of serum transgelin was compared in COVID-19 patients with different severity scores. (A) SMART-COP score. (B) 4C-Mortality score. (C) CURXO score. (D) A-DROP score. (E) DTPNCP score. (F) MuLBSTA score. (G) PSI score. (H) CURB-65 score. (I) COVID-GRAM score. *P<0.05, **P<0.01.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The expression of serum transgelin in COVID-19 patients between onset and convalescent periods. The expression of serum transgelin was detected and compared in COVID-19 cases with different periods. (A) The expression of serum transgelin was analyzed in COVID-19 cases at the onset and convalescent phases. (B) The expression of serum transgelin was analyzed in the same COVID-19 cases between onset and convalescent periods. **P<0.01.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The relationships of serum transgelin with clinical characteristics in COVID-19 patients. The relationships between serum transgelin and clinical characteristics were evaluated among COVID-19 patients by Spearman correlation coefficient or Pearson rank correlation analyses. All characteristics consisted of WBC, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, urea nitrogen, creatinine, uric acid, ALT, AST, CK, CK-MB, cTnI, heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, PaO2, SpO2, PaO2/FiO2, IL-6, CRP, D-Dimer, PCT, and LDH. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ****P<0.0001.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The predictive capacities for critical cases and death among COVID-19 patients. The predictive capacities for critical cases and death were assessed via ROC curve. (A) The predictive capacity for critical cases between serum transgelin and COVID-19 severity scores. (B) The predictive capacity for death between serum transgelin and COVID-19 severity scores.
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