SOD1 is a possible predictor of COVID-19 progression as revealed by plasma proteomics

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a worldwide health emergency. Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 present with diverse symptoms relating to the severity of the disease. Determining the proteomic changes associated with these diverse symptoms and in different stages of infection is beneficial for clinical diagnosis and management. Here, we performed a Tandem Mass Tag (TMT)-labeling proteomic study on the plasma of healthy controls and COVID-19 patients, including those with asymptomatic infection (NS), mild syndrome (MS), and severe syndrome in the early phase (SSEP) and the later phase (SSLP). While the number of patients included in each group is low, our comparative proteomic analysis revealed that complement and coagulation cascades, cholesterol metabolism and glycolysis-related proteins were affected after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Compared to healthy controls, ELISA analysis confirmed that SOD1, PRDX2 and LDHA levels were increased in the patients with severe symptoms. Both gene set enrichment analysis and receiver operator characteristic analysis indicated that SOD1 could be a pivotal indicator for the severity of COVID-19. Our results indicated that plasma proteome changes differed based on symptoms and disease stages and SOD1 could be a predictor protein for indicating COVID-19 progression. These results may also provide new understanding for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment.