Immunomodulatory mechanisms of abatacept: A therapeutic strategy for COVID-19

Dinglong Yang; Hetong Li; Yujing Chen; Weiping Ren; Mingjie Dong; Chunjiang Li; Qiang Jiao

doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.951115

Immunomodulatory mechanisms of abatacept: A therapeutic strategy for COVID-19

Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Jul 25:9:951115. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.951115. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Dinglong Yang¹, Hetong Li¹, Yujing Chen², Weiping Ren³, Mingjie Dong¹, Chunjiang Li³, Qiang Jiao³

Affiliations

¹ Second Clinical Medical College, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
² School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
³ Department of Orthopedics, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has rapidly spread throughout the world and become a major threat to human beings. Cytokine storm is a major cause of death in severe patients. Abatacept can suppress cytokines used as antirheumatic drugs in clinical applications. This study analyzed the molecular mechanisms of abatacept treatment for COVID-19. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by analyzing expression profiling of abatacept treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and SARS-CoV-2 infection patients. We found that 59 DEGs were upregulated in COVID-19 patients and downregulated following abatacept treatment. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that immune and inflammatory responses were potential regulatory mechanisms. Moreover, we verified 8 targeting genes and identified 15 potential drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19. Our study illustrated that abatacept could be a promising property for preventing severe COVID-19, and we predicted alternative potential drugs for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; abatacept; cytokine storm; immune and inflammatory responses; target genes.