Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is accompanied by increased levels of antiplasmin

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Abstract

Background

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2)-induced infection, the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is characterized by acute clinical pathologies, including various coagulopathies that may be accompanied by hypercoagulation and platelet hyperactivation. Recently, a new COVID-19 phenotype has been noted in patients after they have ostensibly recovered from acute COVID-19 symptoms. This new syndrome is commonly termed Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). Here we refer to it as Long COVID/PASC. Lingering symptoms persist for as much as 6 months (or longer) after acute infection, where COVID-19 survivors complain of recurring fatigue or muscle weakness, being out of breath, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Given that blood clots can block microcapillaries and thereby inhibit oxygen exchange, we here investigate if the lingering symptoms that individuals with Long COVID/PASC manifest might be due to the presence of persistent circulating plasma microclots that are resistant to fibrinolysis.

Methods

We use techniques including proteomics and fluorescence microscopy to study plasma samples from healthy individuals, individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), with acute COVID-19, and those with Long COVID/PASC symptoms.

Results

We show that plasma samples from Long COVID/PASC still contain large anomalous (amyloid) deposits (microclots). We also show that these microclots in both acute COVID-19 and Long COVID/PASC plasma samples are resistant to fibrinolysis (compared to plasma from controls and T2DM), even after trypsinisation. After a second trypsinization, the persistent pellet deposits (microclots) were solubilized. We detected various inflammatory molecules that are substantially increased in both the supernatant and trapped in the solubilized pellet deposits of acute COVID-19 and Long COVID/PASC, versus the equivalent volume of fully digested fluid of the control samples and T2DM. Of particular interest was a substantial increase in α(2)-antiplasmin (α2AP), various fibrinogen chains, as well as Serum Amyloid A (SAA) that were trapped in the solubilized fibrinolytic-resistant pellet deposits.

Conclusions

Clotting pathologies in both acute COVID-19 infection and in Long COVID/PASC might benefit from following a regime of continued anticlotting therapy to support the fibrinolytic system function.

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Most cited references 69

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Pulmonary Vascular Endothelialitis, Thrombosis, and Angiogenesis in Covid-19

Maximilian Ackermann, Stijn Verleden, Mark Kuehnel … (2020)

Progressive respiratory failure is the primary cause of death in the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Despite widespread interest in the pathophysiology of the disease, relatively little is known about the associated morphologic and molecular changes in the peripheral lung of patients who die from Covid-19.

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6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study

Chaolin Huang, Lixue Huang, Yeming Wang … (2021)

Background The long-term health consequences of COVID-19 remain largely unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the long-term health consequences of patients with COVID-19 who have been discharged from hospital and investigate the associated risk factors, in particular disease severity. Methods We did an ambidirectional cohort study of patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital (Wuhan, China) between Jan 7, 2020, and May 29, 2020. Patients who died before follow-up, patients for whom follow-up would be difficult because of psychotic disorders, dementia, or re-admission to hospital, those who were unable to move freely due to concomitant osteoarthropathy or immobile before or after discharge due to diseases such as stroke or pulmonary embolism, those who declined to participate, those who could not be contacted, and those living outside of Wuhan or in nursing or welfare homes were all excluded. All patients were interviewed with a series of questionnaires for evaluation of symptoms and health-related quality of life, underwent physical examinations and a 6-min walking test, and received blood tests. A stratified sampling procedure was used to sample patients according to their highest seven-category scale during their hospital stay as 3, 4, and 5–6, to receive pulmonary function test, high resolution CT of the chest, and ultrasonography. Enrolled patients who had participated in the Lopinavir Trial for Suppression of SARS-CoV-2 in China received severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 antibody tests. Multivariable adjusted linear or logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between disease severity and long-term health consequences. Findings In total, 1733 of 2469 discharged patients with COVID-19 were enrolled after 736 were excluded. Patients had a median age of 57·0 (IQR 47·0–65·0) years and 897 (52%) were men. The follow-up study was done from June 16, to Sept 3, 2020, and the median follow-up time after symptom onset was 186·0 (175·0–199·0) days. Fatigue or muscle weakness (63%, 1038 of 1655) and sleep difficulties (26%, 437 of 1655) were the most common symptoms. Anxiety or depression was reported among 23% (367 of 1617) of patients. The proportions of median 6-min walking distance less than the lower limit of the normal range were 24% for those at severity scale 3, 22% for severity scale 4, and 29% for severity scale 5–6. The corresponding proportions of patients with diffusion impairment were 22% for severity scale 3, 29% for scale 4, and 56% for scale 5–6, and median CT scores were 3·0 (IQR 2·0–5·0) for severity scale 3, 4·0 (3·0–5·0) for scale 4, and 5·0 (4·0–6·0) for scale 5–6. After multivariable adjustment, patients showed an odds ratio (OR) 1·61 (95% CI 0·80–3·25) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 4·60 (1·85–11·48) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for diffusion impairment; OR 0·88 (0·66–1·17) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and OR 1·77 (1·05–2·97) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for anxiety or depression, and OR 0·74 (0·58–0·96) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 2·69 (1·46–4·96) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for fatigue or muscle weakness. Of 94 patients with blood antibodies tested at follow-up, the seropositivity (96·2% vs 58·5%) and median titres (19·0 vs 10·0) of the neutralising antibodies were significantly lower compared with at the acute phase. 107 of 822 participants without acute kidney injury and with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 90 mL/min per 1·73 m2 or more at acute phase had eGFR less than 90 mL/min per 1·73 m2 at follow-up. Interpretation At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Patients who were more severely ill during their hospital stay had more severe impaired pulmonary diffusion capacities and abnormal chest imaging manifestations, and are the main target population for intervention of long-term recovery. Funding National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Major Projects of National Science and Technology on New Drug Creation and Development of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and Peking Union Medical College Foundation.

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Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19

Angelo Carfì, Roberto Bernabei, Francesco Landi (2020)

This case series describes COVID-19 symptoms persisting a mean of 60 days after onset among Italian patients previously discharged from COVID-19 hospitalization.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Etheresia Pretorius:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9108-2384

resiap@sun.ac.za , http://www.resiapretorius.net/

Mare Vlok: marevlok@sun.ac.za

Chantelle Venter: chantellev@sun.ac.za

Johannes A. Bezuidenhout: jabez@sun.ac.za

Gert Jacobus Laubscher: laubscher911@gmail.com

Janami Steenkamp: janami.steenkamp@pathcare.org

Douglas B. Kell:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5838-7963

dbk@liv.ac.uk

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Cardiovasc Diabetol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Cardiovasc Diabetol

Title: Cardiovascular Diabetology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1475-2840

Publication date (Electronic): 23 August 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 23 August 2021

Publication date Collection: 2021

Volume: 20

Electronic Location Identifier: 172

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.11956.3a, ISNI 0000 0001 2214 904X, Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Science, , Stellenbosch University, ; Private Bag X1 Matieland, Stellenbosch, 7602 South Africa

[2 ]GRID grid.11956.3a, ISNI 0000 0001 2214 904X, Central Analytical Facility: Mass Spectrometry, , Stellenbosch University, ; Tygerberg Campus, Room 6054, Clinical Building, Francie Van Zijl Drive Tygerberg, Cape Town, 7505 South Africa

[3 ]Mediclinic Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, 7600 South Africa

[4 ]PathCare Laboratories, PathCare Business Centre, PathCare Park, Neels Bothma Street, N1 City, Cape Town, 7460 South Africa

[5 ]GRID grid.10025.36, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8470, Department of Biochemistry and Systems Biology, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, , University of Liverpool, ; Liverpool, L69 7ZB UK

[6 ]GRID grid.5170.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2181 8870, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Biosustainability, , Technical University of Denmark, ; Kemitorvet 200, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark

Author information

Etheresia Pretorius http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9108-2384

Douglas B. Kell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5838-7963

Article

Publisher ID: 1359

DOI: 10.1186/s12933-021-01359-7

PMC ID: 8381139

PubMed ID: 34425843

SO-VID: 0b2d8c06-1a61-4ef6-97b5-105ab5331a66

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 23 June 2021

Date accepted : 3 August 2021

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011747, novo nordisk foundation center for basic metabolic research;

Award ID: NNF20CC0035580

Award Recipient : Douglas B. Kell

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Endocrinology & Diabetes

Keywords: covid-19,long covid/pasc,fibrin(ogen),microclots,proteomics,antiplasmin,serum amyloid a

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Endocrinology & Diabetes

Keywords: covid-19, long covid/pasc, fibrin(ogen), microclots, proteomics, antiplasmin, serum amyloid a

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Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is accompanied by increased levels of antiplasmin

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Abstract

Background

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Conclusions

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 69

Pulmonary Vascular Endothelialitis, Thrombosis, and Angiogenesis in Covid-19

6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study

Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19

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