RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Circulating Mitochondrial DNA is an Early Indicator of Severe Illness and Mortality from COVID-19
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.07.30.227553
DO 10.1101/2020.07.30.227553
A1 Davide Scozzi
A1 Marlene Cano
A1 Lina Ma
A1 Dequan Zhou
A1 Ji Hong Zhu
A1 Jane A O’Halloran
A1 Charles Goss
A1 Adriana M. Rauseo
A1 Zhiyi Liu
A1 Valentina Peritore
A1 Monica Rocco
A1 Alberto Ricci
A1 Rachele Amodeo
A1 Laura Aimati
A1 Mohsen Ibrahim
A1 Ramsey Hachem
A1 Daniel Kreisel
A1 Philip A. Mudd
A1 Hrishikesh S. Kulkarni
A1 Andrew E. Gelman
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/30/2020.07.30.227553.abstract
AB Mitochondrial DNA (MT-DNA) are intrinsically inflammatory nucleic acids released by damaged solid organs. Whether the appearance of cell-free MT-DNA is linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes remains undetermined. Here, we quantified circulating MT-DNA in prospectively collected, cell-free plasma samples from 97 subjects with COVID-19 at the time of hospital presentation. Circulating MT-DNA were sharply elevated in patients who eventually died, required ICU admission or intubation. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that high circulating MT-DNA levels is an independent risk factor for all of these outcomes after adjusting for age, sex and comorbidities. Additionally, we found that circulating MT-DNA has a similar or superior area-under-the curve when compared to clinically established measures of systemic inflammation, as well as emerging markers currently of interest as investigational targets for COVID-19 therapy. These results show that high circulating MT-DNA levels is a potential indicator for poor COVID-19 outcomes.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.