Methylprednisolone therapy induces differential metabolic trajectories in severe COVID-19 patients

摘要: Corticosteroids have become a choice for managing severe COVID-19, but the molecular mechanisms behind the response after corticosteroid administration remain incompletely understood. In order to unravel this, comparisons between temporal metabolic profiles in the plasma samples of methylprednisolone (MP)- and placebo-treated COVID-19 patients were performed at different time points. The patient plasma samples used were obtained from a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase IIb clinical trial performed on severe COVID-19 patients in the Brazilian Amazon, where the patients received placebo or 0.5 mg/kg MP intravenously twice daily for 5 days. The MP treatment reduced the number of metabolites in the plasma of patients during follow-up. The longitudinal changes in the MP group were in eight metabolic pathways related to steroid hormones and eicosanoids. Direct comparison …