RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Unravelling the debate on heme effects in COVID-19 infections
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.06.09.142125
DO 10.1101/2020.06.09.142125
A1 Marie-Thérèse Hopp
A1 Daniel Domingo-Fernández
A1 Yojana Gadiya
A1 Milena S. Detzel
A1 Benjamin F. Schmalohr
A1 Francèl Steinbock
A1 Diana Imhof
A1 Martin Hofmann-Apitius
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/12/2020.06.09.142125.abstract
AB The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was recently declared a worldwide pandemic. Infection triggers the respiratory tract disease COVID-19, which is accompanied by serious changes of clinical biomarkers such as hemoglobin and interleukins. The same parameters are altered during hemolysis, which is characterized by an increase in labile heme. We present two approaches that aim at analyzing a potential link between available heme and COVID-19 pathogenesis. Four COVID-19 related proteins, i.e. the host cell proteins ACE2 and TMPRSS2 as well as the viral protein 7a and S protein, were identified as potential heme binders. We also performed a detailed analysis of the common pathways induced by heme and SARS-CoV-2 by superimposition of knowledge graphs covering heme biology and COVID-19 pathophysiology. Herein, focus was laid on inflammatory pathways, and distinct biomarkers as the linking elements. Finally, the results substantially improve our understanding of COVID-19 infections and disease progression of patients with different clinical backgrounds and expand the diagnostic and treatment options.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.