Urine amino acid and gamma aminobutyric acid level in COVID 19 patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

SARS CoV2 has tropism for various tissues, including the respiratory tract, brain, endothelium, heart, kidney and liver. Neurological symptoms can also be seen in the clinical course of the disease, and anosmia is the most common. The main objective of our study was to examine the urinary amino acid profiles of moderately severe patients diagnosed with COVID-19 with a positive RT-PCR test and try to find metabolic changes associated with the infection. Also, it was aimed to investigate the neuroinhibitory Gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in order to examine the physiopathology.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty adult cases who were followed up in the infection clinic with positive SARS CoV 2 RT-PCR and diagnosed with COVID 19 disease were included in the study with consent. The amino acid profile of these patients' urine samples, 30 different amino acid levels and creatine levels were examined using the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) method on the SCIEX QTRAP 4500 device.

RESULTS

The mean age of the patients is 40 ± 5. Elevated GABA in 28/30 cases, high hydroxylysine amino acid in 27/30 cases, low glycine in 30/30 cases were detected in the urine. The creatinine levels of the patients were found to be normal.

CONCLUSION

It has been thought that the height of GABA may be due to bacteria producing GABA as a result of the change in microbiota due to lactic acidosis, as well as that the virus may directly affect the brain and cause an increase in GABA.