Journal Article

Baseline Plasma Osteopontin Protein Elevation Predicts Adverse Outcomes in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

Croce, Alessandro, Zecca, Erika, Bellan, Mattia, Sainaghi, Pier Paolo, Tonello, Stelvio, D’Onghia, Davide, Apostolo, Daria, Rizzi, Eleonora, Crobu, Maria Grazia, Matino, Erica, Landi, Raffaella, Colangelo, Donato, Avanzi, Gian Carlo, Ravanini, Paolo, Lilleri, Daniele, Rizzi, Manuela, Vassia, Veronica, Costanzo, Martina, Casciaro, Giuseppe Francesco, Pedrinelli, Anita Rebecca, Pirisi, Mario, Castello, Luigi Mario, Minisini, Rosalba

2023

Overview

More than three years have passed since the first case, and COVID-19 is still a health concern, with several open issues such as the lack of reliable predictors of a patient’s outcome. Osteopontin (OPN) is involved in inflammatory response to infection and in thrombosis driven by chronic inflammation, thus being a potential biomarker for COVID-19. The aim of the study was to evaluate OPN for predicting negative (death or need of ICU admission) or positive (discharge and/or clinical resolution within the first 14 days of hospitalization) outcome. We enrolled 133 hospitalized, moderate-to-severe COVID-19 patients in a prospective observational study between January and May 2021. Circulating OPN levels were measured by ELISA at admission and at day 7. The results showed a significant correlation between higher plasma concentrations of OPN at hospital admission and a worsening clinical condition. At multivariate analysis, after correction for demographic (age and gender) and variables of disease severity (NEWS2 and PiO2/FiO2), OPN measured at baseline predicted an adverse prognosis with an odds ratio of 1.01 (C.I. 1.0–1.01). At ROC curve analysis, baseline OPN levels higher than 437 ng/mL predicted a severe disease evolution with 53% sensitivity and 83% specificity (area under the curve 0.649, p = 0.011, likelihood ratio of 1.76, (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.35–2.28)). Our data show that OPN levels determined at the admission to hospital wards might represent a promising biomarker for early stratification of patients’ COVID-19 severity. Taken together, these results highlight the involvement of OPN in COVID-19 evolution, especially in dysregulated immune response conditions, and the possible use of OPN measurements as a prognostic tool in COVID-19.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: biomarker / Biomarkers / Chronic infection / Clinical medicine / confidence interval / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - diagnosis / COVID-19 infection / Cytokines / death / Disease / disease progression / disease severity / Evaluation / evolution / gender / Health aspects / Hospital patients / Hospitals / Humans / Immune response / Infections / Inflammation / Interferon / Laboratories / Multivariate analysis / Mutation / Observational studies / odds ratio / Osteopontin / Osteopontin (OPN) / Pandemics / Pathogens / Patients / Plasma / Prognosis / Proteins / ROC Curve / SARS-CoV-2 / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Software / Thrombosis / Viruses