COVID-19 Is a Multi-Organ Aggressor: Epigenetic and Clinical Marks

Abstract

The progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), resulting from a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, may be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Several viruses hijack the host genome machinery for their own advantage and survival, and similar phenomena might occur upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severe cases of COVID-19 may be driven by metabolic and epigenetic driven mechanisms, including DNA methylation and histone/chromatin alterations. These epigenetic phenomena may respond to enhanced viral replication and mediate persistent long-term infection and clinical phenotypes associated with severe COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Understanding the epigenetic events involved, and their clinical significance, may provide novel insights valuable for the therapeutic control and management of the COVID-19 pandemic. This review highlights different epigenetic marks potentially associated with COVID-19 development, clinical manifestation, and progression.

COVID-19: Multiorgan Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 Is Driven by Pulmonary Factors

“…Furthermore, a significant increase in ALT and AST levels was characteristic for patients with uninfected liver tissue (No. 1,7,8,11,16) and patients with high SARS-CoV-2 VL in the liver (No. 4, 12, 1).…”

“…COVID-19, as a multisystemic pathology, has led to more than 5 million deaths worldwide to date [1]. A severe course and fatal outcomes of the disease are commonly associated with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure [2][3][4][5].…”

African Genetic Representation in the Context of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Severity

“…Publications focusing on the role of host genetic factors in determining susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity have included epigenetic, mitochondrial, candidate gene, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as well as the use of whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing (WGS) ( Ellinghaus et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ; Chlamydas et al, 2021 ; Kgatle et al, 2021 ; Scozzi et al, 2021 ; Sen et al, 2021 ; Velavan et al, 2021 ; Wu et al, 2021 ). One of the earlier human genetic studies included a GWAS of SARS-CoV-2 respiratory failure, which identified associations with the ABO blood locus and a chromosome 3 gene cluster ( SLC6A20 , LZTFL1 , CCR9 , FYCO1 , CXCR6 and XCR1 ) in Italian and Spanish populations ( Ellinghaus et al, 2020 ).…”

Insights into Cardiovascular Defects and Cardiac Epigenome in the Context of COVID-19

“…It also indicates towards a prenatal link between maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection and altered DNA methylation. Kgatle et al [ 29 ] and Papakonstantinou et al [ 30 ] have also discussed epigenome in the context of COVID-19 and heart.…”

“…Since epigenome-based therapies are an upcoming and promising field, it is necessary to explore their potential in our battle against an unfamiliar enemy when there is a lack of current preventative strategy. In this direction, few studies have investigated the epigenome upon SARS-CoV-2 infection to find several alterations in DNA methylation which is a major epigenetic signature, and some of these studies investigated the heart [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Consequently, altered DNA methylation has led to changes in the expression of several genes.…”