INTRACELLULAR LEVEL OF HIF-1α IS AN INFORMATIVE INDICATOR OF THE DELAYED IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE METABOLISM OF PERIPHERAL BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 infection induces metabolic changes that play a critical role in both SARS-CoV-2 replication and regulation of the immune response. HIF-1, one of the effectors of the PI-3K/Akt/mTOR signal transmission pathway, promotes reprogramming of metabolism through the enhancement of aerobic glycolysis AIM: To reveal the informativity of the intracellular level of HIF-1 as an indicator of changes in the metabolism of peripheral blood lymphocytes after a COVID-19 infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 59 volunteers were examined, 38 of them did not have a history of COVID-19 and 21 people had the disease 2-8 months before the start of the survey. The presence of IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was determined in the serum of the blood taken for analysis. The absolute content of lymphocytes was measured in whole blood, and the concentration of HIF-1 was determined in the lymphocyte lysate by enzyme immunoassay. The obtained data was statistically processed using the IBM SPSS software package (version 26). The mean values (M) and standard deviation (SD) were calculated, the normality of distribution was assessed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the Student's t-test and the level of statistical significance p0.05 were used to compare the means. ROC analysis with the construction of a characteristic curve for the classifier HIF-1 was conducted. RESULTS: It was found that the content of HIF-1 in peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients after COVID-19 infection is statistically significantly lower compared with those who have not been ill and remains so for 5 months after the disease. The model with the HIF-1 classifier has a high predictive power regarding the likelihood of changes in lymphocyte metabolism after COVID-19 infection. The intracellular content of HIF-1 equal to 1,25 ng/106 cells corresponds to the optimal cut-off threshold. CONCLUSION: The intracellular level of HIF-1 can be used to assess the likelihood of a delayed impact of COVID-19 on the metabolism of peripheral blood lymphocytes and to monitor metabolic changes.