Proteomic snapshot of saliva samples predicts new pathways implicated in
SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis
Abstract
The information on the microbiome’s human pathways and active members
that can affect SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and pathogenesis in the
salivary proteome is very scarce. Here, we studied samples collected
from April to June 2020 from unvaccinated patients. We compared 10
infected and hospitalized patients with severe (n=5) and moderate (n=5)
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) with 10 uninfected individuals, including
Non-COVID but susceptible individuals (n=5) and Non-COVID and
non-susceptible healthcare workers with repeated high-risk exposures
(n=5). By performing high-throughput proteomic profiling in saliva
samples, we detected 226 unique differentially expressed (DE) human
proteins between groups (q-value ≤0.05) out of 2721 unambiguously
identified proteins (false discovery rate ≤1%). Major differences were
observed between the Non-COVID vs the non-susceptible groups.
Bioinformatics analysis of DE proteins revealed human proteomic
signatures related to inflammatory responses, central cellular
processes, and antiviral activity associated with saliva of SARS-CoV-2
infected patients (p-value ≤0.0004). Discriminatory biomarker signatures
from human saliva include cystatins, protective molecules present in the
oral cavity, calprotectins, involved in cell cycle progression, and
histones, related to nucleosome functions. The expression level of two
human proteins related to protein transport in the cytoplasm, named
DYNC1 (p-value, 0.0021) and MAPRE1 (p-value, 0.047), correlated with
angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) plasma activity. Finally, the
proteomes of microorganisms present in the saliva samples showed 4 main
microbial functional features related to ribosome functioning that are
overrepresented in the infected group. Our study explores potential
candidates involved in pathways implicated in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility
although further studies in larger cohorts will be necessary.