Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Viral Immunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1505752
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Antiviral Immune Responses and Therapeutic Strategies Against Human Coronaviruses View all 5 articles

Extracellular acyl-CoA-binding protein (ACBP) as an independent biomarker of COVID-19 disease severity

Provisionally accepted
Stéphane Isnard Stéphane Isnard 1*Tsoarello Mabanga Tsoarello Mabanga 1Léna Royston Léna Royston 1Carolina A Berini Carolina A Berini 1Simeng Bu Simeng Bu 1Orthy Aiyana Orthy Aiyana 1Hansen Feng Hansen Feng 1Bertrand Lebouché Bertrand Lebouché 1Cecilia Costiniuk Cecilia Costiniuk 1Joseph Cox Joseph Cox 1Guido Kroemer Guido Kroemer 2Madeleine Durand Madeleine Durand 3Jean-Pierre Routy Jean-Pierre Routy 1*
  • 1 Research Institute, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada
  • 2 INSERM U1138 Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers (CRC), Paris, Île-de-France, France
  • 3 University of Montreal Hospital Centre (CRCHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Factors leading to severe COVID-19 remain partially known. New biomarkers predicting COVID-19 severity that are also causally involved in disease pathogenesis could improve patient management and contribute to the development of innovative therapies.Autophagy, a cytosolic structure degradation pathway is involved in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis, degradation of intracellular pathogens and generation of energy for immune responses. Acyl-CoA binding protein (ACBP) is a key regulator of autophagy in the context of diabetes, obesity and anorexia. The objective of our work was to assess whether circulating ACBP levels are associated with COVID-19 severity, using proteomics data from the plasma of 903 COVID-19 patients.Somalogic proteomic analysis was used to detect 5000 proteins in plasma samples collected between March 2020 and August 2021 from hospitalized participants in the province of Quebec, Canada. Plasma samples from 903 COVID-19 patients collected during their admission during acute phase of COVID-19 and 295 hospitalized controls were assessed leading to 1198 interpretable proteomic profiles. Levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG were measured by ELISA and a cell-binding assay.The median age of the participants was 59 years, 46% were female, 65% had comorbidities. Plasma ACBP levels correlated with COVID-19 severity, in association with inflammation and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels, independently of sex or the presence of comorbidities. Samples collected during the second COVID-19 wave in Quebec had higher levels of plasma ACBP than during the first wave. Plasma ACBP levels were negatively correlated with biomarkers of T and NK cell responses interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-21, independently of age, sex, and severity.Circulating ACBP levels can be considered a biomarker of COVID-19 severity linked to inflammation. The contribution of extracellular ACBP to immunometabolic responses during viral infection should be further studied.

    Keywords: Acyl-CoA-binding protein, Autophagy, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Proteomics, BQC-19 biobank

    Received: 03 Oct 2024; Accepted: 12 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Isnard, Mabanga, Royston, Berini, Bu, Aiyana, Feng, Lebouché, Costiniuk, Cox, Kroemer, Durand and Routy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Stéphane Isnard, Research Institute, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada
    Jean-Pierre Routy, Research Institute, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.