Focusing on the metabolic changes caused by the COVID-19 disease. A Metabolomic approach using urine

Analysis of urine samples from COVID-19 patients by 1 H NMR reveals important metabolic alterations due to SAR-CoV-2 infection. To detect these alterations, we have compared urine samples from COVID-19 patients with healthy people. We have used unsupervised (Robust PCA) and supervised (PLS-LDA) multivariate analysis methods. The generated mathematical models allow us to evaluate the differences between the two groups, COVID-19 and healthy people. The differences focus on a group of metabolites related to energy metabolism (glucose, ketone bodies, glycine, creatinine and citrate) and other processes related to bacterial flora (TMAO and formic acid) and detoxification (hippuric acid). The evidence in these metabolites would be indicating that the SARS-CoV-2 virus would be causing a metabolic change from a normal situation of glucose consumption towards a gluconeogenic situation and possible insulin resistance.