Integrative Multidimensional Profiling of Individuals Recovered from Mild COVID-19 Reveals Immune–Metabolic–Oxidative Network Interactions
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need to better characterize immune and molecular responses following SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. Beyond antibody and cellular immunity, COVID-19 involves oxidative stress and DNA damage, affecting repair mechanisms and metabolic adaptation linked to immune resilience. Here, we present a multidimensional analysis of 20 individuals who recovered from mild COVID-19, integrating clinical features with humoral and cellular immune responses, T cell and myeloid phenotypes, oxidative stress, DNA damage, and metabolomic and lipidomic profiles. Although most individual parameters fell within physiological ranges, network modeling revealed structured associations spanning multiple biological domains. A central finding was a coherent cluster organized around vaccine dose number, linking anti-Spike antibody titers, oxidative stress, bioenergetic signatures, and granulocyte activation. Higher vaccination was associated with stronger humoral responses, lower oxidative stress, and a more balanced myeloid–metabolic profile, suggesting a potential protective role extending beyond antibody induction. Additional associations linked symptom patterns to T cell differentiation states, anti-nucleocapsid responses to systemic inflammation, and anaerobic signatures to DNA damage markers, revealing interconnections between immunometabolism, clinical expression, and genomic stress. Despite the small sample size, these findings offer a preliminary systems-level perspective on mild COVID-19 recovery and illustrate the value of integrative exploratory frameworks in infectious disease research, laying the groundwork for validation in larger longitudinal cohorts.
Authors
- Mattea Chirico (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3447-5077)
- Enrica Montefiore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3508-3892)
- Alessandro Giuliani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4640-804X)
- Antonio Martina
- C Andreoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3724-0668)
- Francesca Urbani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5522-2706)
- Martina Borghi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6313-0273)
- Francesca Marcon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0431-8310)
- Valentina Durastanti
- Egidio Iorio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6673-3838)
- Maria Elena Pisanu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0029-3523)
- Donatella Pietraforte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6370-912X)
- Francesca Luciani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1362-2808)
- Iole Macchia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3870-8202)
- Maria Cristina Quattrini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6631-115X)
- Valentina La Sorsa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4141-7561)
- Fabiola Mancini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1377-178X)
- Maria Concetta Altavista (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7121-0935)
Institutions
- Ospedale San Filippo Neri (IT)
- National Institute of Health (AM)
Publication Details
- Journal
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Published
- 2026-07-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27146518
- Primary Topic
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00