Immune and Metabolic Signatures in Long-COVID: A Multi-Omics Pilot Study in Non-Hospitalized Healthcare Workers.
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Long COVID (LC) affects hundreds of millions globally, yet validated diagnostic biomarkers remain lacking. Non-hospitalized individuals, often with normal clinical tests, are especially understudied, including healthcare workers who are disproportionately affected. We performed transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling in 47 non-hospitalized healthcare workers: 12 with LC and 35 controls. Transcriptomic analysis revealed 63 differentially expressed genes, including neutrophil-associated markers S100A8 and LY96 , indicating persistent inflammatory activation. Metabolomic analysis identified 24 annotated metabolites, with oxoglutarate showing the most distinctive longitudinal change, increasing in LC cases but decreasing in controls. Integrated network analysis highlighted hubs ( APP, RELA, ATF2, HLA-B) , with convergence on necroptosis and serotonergic synapse pathways. These findings suggest mechanistic links between immune dysregulation and neurocognitive or metabolic disturbances and nominate candidate biomarkers for validation in larger cohorts of non-hospitalized healthcare workers.
