Frontiers in Medicine (Jul 2022)

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
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.951115
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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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.

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