Proteomic and metabolomic analysis of COVID-19 nasal swabs

The epithelial barrier's primary role is to protect against entry of foreign and pathogenic elements. Global and targeted approaches were applied to nasal swabs from healthy and COVID-19-confirmed cases within 24 hours post-positive-confirmation and at 3 weeks post-infection to observe changes in proteome and metabolome. We found that the tryptophan/kynurenine metabolism pathway is a pinch-point regulator of canonical and non-canonical transcription activation, macrophage release of cytokines and significant changes in the immune and metabolic status with increasing severity and disease course.