Lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase level predicts the severity and prognosis of patients with community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective multicenter study

Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 8:14:1295353. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1295353. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Background: Identifying the diagnosis as well as prognosis for patients presented with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains challenging. We aimed to identify the role of lysophosphatidylcholine acyl-transferase (LPCAT) for CAP along with assessing this protein's effectiveness as a biomarker for severity of disease and mortality.

Methods: Prospective multicenter research study was carried out among hospitalized patients. A total of 299 CAP patients (including 97 severe CAP patients [SCAP]) and 20 healthy controls (HC) were included. A quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent test kit was employed for detecting the LPCAT level in plasma. We developed a deep-learning-based binary classification (SCAP or non-severe CAP [NSCAP]) model to process LPCAT levels and other laboratory test results.

Results: The level of LPCAT in patients with SCAP and death outcome was significantly higher than that in other patients. LPCAT showed the highest predictive value for SCAP. LPCAT was able to predict 30-day mortality among CAP patients, combining LPCAT values with PSI scores or CURB-65 further enhance mortality prediction accuracy.

Conclusion: The on admission level of LPCAT found significantly raised among SCAP patients and strongly predicted SCAP patients but with no correlation to etiology. Combining the LPCAT value with CURB-65 or PSI improved the 30-day mortality forecast significantly.

Trial registration: NCT03093220 Registered on March 28th, 2017.

Keywords: community-acquired pneumonia; etiology; lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase; mortality; predictive value.

Publication types

  • Clinical Study
  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • 1-Acylglycerophosphocholine O-Acyltransferase
  • Acyltransferases
  • Community-Acquired Infections* / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Pneumonia* / diagnosis
  • Prognosis
  • Prospective Studies

Substances

  • 1-Acylglycerophosphocholine O-Acyltransferase
  • Acyltransferases

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT03093220

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The research was funded by the Research and Development Fund of Peking University People’s Hospital (Scientific Research) (Grant No. RDGS2022-11) and Beijing Science and Technology plan program (Grant No. Z211100002521020).