ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Viral Immunology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1601672
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Influence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Long-COVID on The Incidence of Viral Coinfection.View all 6 articles
Plasma proteomic profiling of hospitalized patients coinfected with HIV and SARS-CoV-2
Provisionally accepted
Xinyu Zhang*
Xuan Yan
Jinfeng SunYueming ShaoWei SongTangkai QiZhenyan WangYang TangJianjun Sun
Jingna XunZichen SongShuibao XuJunyang YangJiangrong WangJun ChenRenfang ZhangLi Liu
Yinzhong Shen- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The interaction between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections presents a critical challenge to immunopathogenesis. While HIV infection induces progressive CD4 + T cell depletion and chronic immune dysfunction, SARS-CoV-2 triggers complex host responses, ranging from localized antiviral defense to systemic hyperinflammation. We aimed to illustrate the plasma proteomic profiles of hospitalized patients coinfected with HIV and SARS-CoV-2.Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to analyze the plasma protein profiles in three matched groups: (1) seven hospitalized patients with HIV and SARS-CoV-2 coinfection, (2) seven people living with HIV (PLWH) who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, and (3) seven healthy controls. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were performed on the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs).We quantified 5,373 proteins across 21 samples and identified significant alterations in multiple proteins in people living with HIV (PLWH) with COVID-19 compared to both PLWH and healthy controls. These DEPs were associated with inflammatory responses, immune cell migration, degranulation, and, notably, the complement and coagulation cascades. In addition, we identified DEPs associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, including viral receptors, proteases, transcription factors, and kinases.The proteomic profile highlighted the disruption caused by COVID-19 in immunomodulation, thrombosis, and viral entry pathways in PLWH. Further validation of these signatures could improve risk stratification and tailored interventions for this vulnerable patient cohort.
Keywords: HIV, COVID-19, SARS- CoV- 2, Coinfection, proteomic
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yan, Sun, Shao, Song, Qi, Wang, Tang, Sun, Xun, Song, Xu, Yang, Wang, Chen, Zhang, Liu and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinyu Zhang, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.