Potential Plasma Proteins (LGALS9, LAMP3, PRSS8 and AGRN) as Predictors of Hospitalisation Risk in COVID-19 Patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Here, we have identified proteomic and genetic signatures for improved prognosis which is vital for COVID-19 research. We investigated the proteomic and genomic profile of COVID-19-positive patients (n = 400 for proteomics, n = 483 for genomics), focusing on differential regulation between hospitalised and non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Signatures had their predictive capabilities tested using independent machine learning models such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF) and Logistic Regression (LR). This study has identified 224 differentially expressed proteins involved in various inflammatory and immunological pathways in hospitalised COVID-19 patients compared to non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients. LGALS9 (-value < 0.001), LAMP3 (-value < 0.001), PRSS8 (-value < 0.001) and AGRN (-value < 0.001) were identified as the most statistically significant proteins. Several hundred rsIDs were queried across the top 10 significant signatures, identifying three significant SNPs on the gene showing a correlation with hospitalisation status. Our study has not only identified key signatures of COVID-19 patients with worsened health but has also demonstrated their predictive capabilities as potential biomarkers, which suggests a staple role in the worsened health effects caused by COVID-19.