Upregulation of miRNA-200c during Disease Progression in COVID-19 Patients

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide since its first outbreak in December 2019 and continues to be a major health problem. Several studies have established that the infection by SARS-CoV-2 can be categorized in a viremic, acute and recovery or severe phase. Hyperinflammation during the acute pneumonia phase is a major cause of severe disease progression and death. Treatment of COVID-19 with directly acting antivirals is limited within a narrow window of time between first clinical symptoms and the hyperinflammatory response. Therefore, early initiation of treatment is crucial to assure optimal health care for patients. Molecular diagnostic biomarkers represent a potent tool to predict the course of disease and thus to assess the optimal treatment regimen and time point. Here, we investigated miRNA-200c as a potential marker for the prediction of the severity of COVID-19 to preventively initiate and personalize therapeutic interventions in the future. We found that miRNA-200c correlates with the severity of disease. With retrospective analysis, however, there is no correlation with prognosis at the time of hospitalization. Our study provides the basis for further evaluation of miRNA-200c as a predictive biomarker for the progress of COVID-19.