Validation of ANG-1 and P-SEL as biomarkers of post-COVID-19 conditions using data from the Biobanque québécoise de la COVID-19, 2023, Rousseau+

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EndME

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Validation of ANG-1 and P-SEL as biomarkers of post-COVID-19 conditions using data from the Biobanque québécoise de la COVID-19 (BQC-19)

The quest for understanding and managing the long-term effects of COVID-19, often referred to as Long COVID or post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), remains an active research area. Recent findings highlighted angiopoietin-1 (ANG-1) and p-selectin (P-SEL) as potential diagnostic markers, but validation is essential, given the inconsistency in COVID-19 biomarker studies. Leveraging the biobanque québécoise de la COVID-19 (BQC19) biobank, we analyzed the data of 249 participants.

Both ANG-1 and P-SEL levels were significantly higher in patients with PCC participants compared with control subjects at 3 months using the Mann-Whitney U test.

We managed to reproduce and validate the findings, emphasizing the importance of collaborative biobanking efforts in enhancing the reproducibility and credibility of Long COVID research outcomes.


https://clinicalproteomicsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12014-023-09436-7
 
Validating some of the findings of Douglas Frasers team whose work and choice of cohort (predominantly older, a slight majority of males, often with pre-existing conditions, with predominantly respiratory and coughing problems) has been discussed here:
The interesting question now will be how exactly the validation cohort looks like and which markers correlate with which subgroup of that validation cohort.
 
They really don't give you much with only a median and Mann-Whitney values, but it does look like something.

I guess what's needed now is to repeat this in another chronic illness control group, to see if this is meaningfully about LC or just a general marker of illness.
 
This result is consistent with the study of interest but differs in the proteomic assessment method used. Patel et al.’s group used a bead-based multiplex assay (based on the Luminex ® xMAP ™ technology) that allows for direct quantification of proteins. We used the aptamer-based Somalogic platform designed as a discovery platform that measures relative concentration of proteins. The concordance of the two analyses suggests that the findings are independent of the measurement technique.
Click to expand...

EndME said:
Validating some of the findings of Douglas Frasers team whose work and choice of cohort (predominantly older, a slight majority of males, often with pre-existing conditions, with predominantly respiratory and coughing problems) has been discussed here:
Click to expand...

The control cohort is also post-infection.
The PCC cohort here has fewer people over 65 (18%) than the control cohort (25%).
Also 59% female versus only 46% female in the control cohort
Still a high hospitalisation rate compared to the controls (58% versus 34%), although it is claimed that 55% of the PCC cohort had a mild acute illness. 69% of the control cohort had a mild acute illness.

So, there is still some doubt about whether the ANG-1 and P-SEL measures might have something to do with increased illness severity rather than PCC/Long Covid. But the findings seem resilient to the sex and age characteristics of the cohorts.
 
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The reported persisting symptoms seem quite odd - the percentages reporting each were mostly much lower than I'm used to seeing in Long Covid cohorts.
49.7% reported fatigue; 33.1% reported breathlessness; 20.1% reported joint pain. 41% reported 'anxiety and depression'; loss of taste and smell 20.9%.
 
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