Hammoudeh, Sarah Musa;
Hammoudeh, Arabella Musa;
Bhamidimarri, Poorna Manasa;
Mahboub, Bassam;
Halwani, Rabih;
Hamid, Qutayba;
Rahmani, Mohamed;
(2021)
Insight into molecular mechanisms underlying hepatic dysfunction in severe COVID-19 patients using systems biology.
World Journal of Gastroenterology
, 27
(21)
pp. 2850-2870.
10.3748/wjg.v27.i21.2850.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic contributing to more than 105 million cases and more than 2.3 million deaths worldwide, was described to be frequently accompanied by extrapulmonary manifestations, including liver dysfunction. Liver dysfunction and elevated liver enzymes were observed in about 53% of COVID-19 patients. AIM: To gain insight into transcriptional abnormalities in liver tissue of severe COVID-19 patients that may result in liver dysfunction. METHODS: The transcriptome of liver autopsy samples from severe COVID-19 patients against those of non-COVID donors was analyzed. Differentially expressed genes were identified from normalized RNA-seq data and analyzed for the enrichment of functional clusters and pathways. The differentially expressed genes were then compared against the genetic signatures of liver diseases including cirrhosis, fibrosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and hepatitis A/B/C. Gene expression of some differentially expressed genes was assessed in the blood samples of severe COVID-19 patients with liver dysfunction using qRT-PCR. RESULTS: Analysis of the differential transcriptome of the liver tissue of severe COVID-19 patients revealed a significant upregulation of transcripts implicated in tissue remodeling including G-coupled protein receptors family genes, DNAJB1, IGF2, EGFR, and HDGF. Concordantly, the differential transcriptome of severe COVID-19 liver tissues substantially overlapped with the disease signature of liver diseases characterized with pathological tissue remodeling (liver cirrhosis, Fibrosis, NAFLD, and hepatitis A/B/C). Moreover, we observed a significant suppression of transcripts implicated in metabolic pathways as well as mitochondrial function, including cytochrome P450 family members, ACAD11, CIDEB, GNMT, and GPAM. Consequently, drug and xenobiotics metabolism pathways are significantly suppressed suggesting a decrease in liver detoxification capacity. In correspondence with the RNA-seq data analysis, we observed a significant upregulation of DNAJB1 and HSP90AB1 as well as significant downregulation of CYP39A1 in the blood plasma of severe COVID-19 patients with liver dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Severe COVID-19 patients appear to experience significant transcriptional shift that may ensue tissue remodeling, mitochondrial dysfunction and lower hepatic detoxification resulting in the clinically observed liver dysfunction.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Insight into molecular mechanisms underlying hepatic dysfunction in severe COVID-19 patients using systems biology |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3748/wjg.v27.i21.2850 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v27.i21.2850 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Hepatic dysfunction, Tissue remodeling, Metabolic pathways, Drug metabolism, Hepatic detoxification |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10148942 |
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