ArticleScience signaling2021
Kynurenic acid may underlie sex-specific immune responses to COVID-19.
Article in Science signaling, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- The tryptophan catabolite or kynurenine pathway in COVID-19 and critical COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Autoimmune disease patients with comorbid cancer exhibit prominent immunometabolic crosstalk.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Kynurenic Acid/GPR35 Signaling Protects the Infarcted Heart by Suppressing Macrophage mtDNA-Triggered cGAS-STING Activation.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Kynurenic acid attenuates experimental allergic rhinitis: Evidence for AhR-associated regulation of mucosal immune homeostasis.PloS one · 2026Article
- KYNA Ameliorates Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Activating the Hippo Signalling Pathway via FTO-Dependent m6A Demethylation of LATS1.Cell proliferation · 2025Article
- Metabolomics and Cytokine Signatures in COVID-19: Uncovering Immunometabolism in Pathogenesis.Metabolites · 2025Article
- The peptidoglycan ofScience translational medicine · 2025Article
- Persistent immune dysregulation and metabolic alterations following SARS-CoV-2 infection.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Impact of neuroinflammation on brain glutamate and dopamine signalling in schizophrenia: an update.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Review
- Article
- The tryptophan metabolic pathway of the microbiome and host cells in health and disease.International immunology · 2024Review
- Tryptophan Metabolism Disorder-Triggered Diseases, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Strategies: A Scientometric Review.Nutrients · 2024Review
- Sex Differences in the Blood Metabolome During Acute Response to Ischemic Stroke.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2024Article
- Review
- The Biology and Biochemistry of Kynurenic Acid, a Potential Nutraceutical with Multiple Biological Effects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Novel COVID-19 biomarkers identified through multi-omics data analysis: N-acetyl-4-O-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetyl-L-alanine, N-acetyltriptophan, palmitoylcarnitine, and glycerol 1-myristate.Internal and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Metabolic predictors of COVID-19 mortality and severity: a survival analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Scientific rationale for the use of α2A-adrenoceptor agonists in treating neuroinflammatory cognitive disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Review
- Metabolomics-directed nanotechnology in viral diseases management: COVID-19 a case study.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2023Review
- Use of mesenchymal stem cell therapy in COVID-19 related strokes.Neural regeneration research · 2023Review
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
22 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has poorer clinical outcomes in males than in females, and immune responses underlie these sex-related differences. Because immune responses are, in part, regulated by metabolites, we examined the serum metabolomes of COVID-19 patients. In male patients, kynurenic acid (KA) and a high KA-to-kynurenine (K) ratio (KA:K) positively correlated with age and with inflammatory cytokines and chemokines and negatively correlated with T cell responses. Males that clinically deteriorated had a higher KA:K than those that stabilized. KA inhibits glutamate release, and glutamate abundance was lower in patients that clinically deteriorated and correlated with immune responses. Analysis of data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project revealed that the expression of the gene encoding the enzyme that produces KA, kynurenine aminotransferase, correlated with cytokine abundance and activation of immune responses in older males. This study reveals that KA has a sex-specific link to immune responses and clinical outcomes in COVID-19, suggesting a positive feedback between metabolites and immune responses in males.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.