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Homocysteinemia and Viral Infection with Special Emphasis on COVID-19

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Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is one of the highly pathogenic viruses causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has tremendously increased mortality rate across the world. COVID-19 has been recognized a pandemic in 2020. Different genomic mutations of this virus are closely associated with cardiovascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Common pathological outcome of cardiovascular diseases is thrombosis. COVID-19 patients were found to be highly susceptible to thrombosis. It is evident that COVID-19 patients are at high risk of thrombosis and coagulopathy due to elevated level of D-dimers. Elevated level of plasma homocysteine is well reported in COVID-19 patients, which is strong risk factor of artherosclerotic vascular disease and thrombosis. Assessing homocysteine level in the blood may help indicate the severity of coronavirus infection. Homocysteinemia is associated with abnormally high level of homocysteine in the blood. The importance of homocysteine lies in the potential prediction of cardiovascular risk in COVID-19 patients. This chapter summarizes the critical role of homocysteine as a key factor of coagulation in prognosis of COVID-19-infected patients. In addition, this chapter highlights the clinical features of SARS-Cov-2-infected patients, molecular mechanism of homocysteinemia, association of homocysteine metabolism with coagulation disorders of SARS-Cov-2-infected patients, and use of homocysteine as a prognostic marker for improving severe complications of COVID-19 patients and reducing mortality rate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Patna (NITP), Patna, Bihar, India

    Anushree Tripathi

  2. Department of Applied Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Krishna Misra

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  1. Anushree Tripathi
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  2. Krishna Misra
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kriya Sharira and Kaya Chikitsa, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Govind Prasad Dubey

  2. Department of Applied Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITA), Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Krishna Misra

  3. Department of Computer Application, Nehru Gram Bharati (Deemed to be University), Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rajesh K. Kesharwani

  4. Department of Zoology, Nehru Gram Bharati (Deemed to be University), Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rudra P. Ojha

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Tripathi, A., Misra, K. (2022). Homocysteinemia and Viral Infection with Special Emphasis on COVID-19. In: Dubey, G.P., Misra, K., Kesharwani, R.K., Ojha, R.P. (eds) Homocysteine Metabolism in Health and Disease. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6867-8_13

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