Metabolomics as a powerful tool for diagnostic, pronostic and drug intervention analysis in COVID-19

COVID-19 currently represents one of the major health challenges worldwide. Albeit its infectious character, with onset affectation mainly at the respiratory track, it is clear that the pathophysiology of COVID-19 has a systemic character, ultimately affecting many organs. This feature enables the possibility of investigating SARS-CoV-2 infection using multi-omic techniques, including metabolomic studies by chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry or by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Here we review the extensive literature on metabolomics in COVID-19, that unraveled many aspects of the disease including: a characteristic metabotipic signature associated to COVID-19, discrimination of patients according to severity, effect of drugs and vaccination treatments and the characterization of the natural history of the metabolic evolution associated to the disease, from the infection onset to full recovery or long-term and long sequelae of COVID.

Automated summary

COVID-19 is a major global health challenge with systemic pathophysiology, affecting multiple organs despite its initial impact on the respiratory tract. Metabolomic studies using techniques such as chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have provided valuable insights into COVID-19, including the identification of a characteristic metabolic signature, differentiation of patients based on disease severity, assessment of drug and vaccine treatments, and understanding the metabolic evolution associated with the disease from onset to recovery or long-term sequelae.