Proteomic Investigation Reveals Dominant Alterations of Neutrophil Degranulation and mRNA Translation Pathways in COVID-19 Patients

With the increasing cases of SARS-CoV2 mediated COVID-19, which has taken the form of a savagely spreading pandemic, quick and effective detection and diagnosis is the need of the hour. While clinical testing is aimed at identifying the positive vs. negative cases, there are also enormous challenges that have emerged with the diagnosis of asymptomatic patients. We have here enumerated identification and detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral peptides and proteins using high throughput mass spectrometry from nasopharyngeal swabs, which can be used for measuring peptides from SARS-CoV-2. This study is aimed at constructing a detection kit and assay via which a simplified sample collection and testing can be performed using swab put in the tubes containing organic solvents (ethanol, acetone or isopropanol), that can then be sent for testing in laboratory using mass spectrometry. This would simplify the detection and increase the robustness of test. Further, the invention has scope for identifying the asymptomatic population using the enumerated proteomics procedure.