Decreased serum level of sphingosine-1-phosphate: a novel predictor of clinical severity in COVID-19

The severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a crucial problem in patient treatment and outcome. The aim of this study is to evaluate circulating level of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) along with severity markers, in COVID-19 patients. One hundred eleven COVID-19 patients and forty-seven healthy subjects were included. The severity of COVID-19 was found significantly associated with anemia, lymphocytopenia, and significant increase of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, ferritin, fibrinogen, aminotransferases, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), C-reactive protein (CRP), and D-dimer. Serum S1P level was inversely associated with COVID-19 severity, being significantly correlated with CRP, LDH, ferritin, and D-dimer. The decrease in S1P was strongly associated with the number of erythrocytes, the major source of plasma S1P, and both apolipoprotein M and albumin, the major transporters of blood S1P. Not last, S1P was found to be a relevant predictor of admission to an intensive care unit, and patient’s outcome. Circulating S1P emerged as negative biomarker of severity/mortality of COVID-19 patients. Restoring abnormal S1P levels to a normal range may have the potential to be a therapeutic target in patients with COVID-19.