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- Title
Blood DNA methylation and COVID-19 outcomes.
- Authors
Balnis, Joseph; Madrid, Andy; Hogan, Kirk J.; Drake, Lisa A.; Chieng, Hau C.; Tiwari, Anupama; Vincent, Catherine E.; Chopra, Amit; Vincent, Peter A.; Robek, Michael D.; Singer, Harold A.; Alisch, Reid S.; Jaitovich, Ariel
- Abstract
Background: There are no prior reports that compare differentially methylated regions of DNA in blood samples from COVID-19 patients to samples collected before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic using a shared epigenotyping platform. We performed a genome-wide analysis of circulating blood DNA CpG methylation using the Infinium Human MethylationEPIC BeadChip on 124 blood samples from hospitalized COVID-19-positive and COVID-19-negative patients and compared these data with previously reported data from 39 healthy individuals collected before the pandemic. Prospective outcome measures such as COVID-19-GRAM risk-score and mortality were combined with methylation data. Results: Global mean methylation levels did not differ between COVID-19 patients and healthy pre-pandemic controls. About 75% of acute illness-associated differentially methylated regions were located near gene promoter regions and were hypo-methylated in comparison with healthy pre-pandemic controls. Gene ontology analyses revealed terms associated with the immune response to viral infections and leukocyte activation; and disease ontology analyses revealed a predominance of autoimmune disorders. Among COVID-19-positive patients, worse outcomes were associated with a prevailing hyper-methylated status. Recursive feature elimination identified 77 differentially methylated positions predictive of COVID-19 severity measured by the GRAM-risk score. Conclusion: Our data contribute to the awareness that DNA methylation may influence the expression of genes that regulate COVID-19 progression and represent a targetable process in that setting.
- Subjects
DNA methylation; COVID-19; COVID-19 pandemic; VIRUS diseases; PROMOTERS (Genetics); DNA; EPIGENOMICS; P16 gene
- Publication
Clinical Epigenetics, 2021, Vol 13, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1868-7075
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s13148-021-01102-9