The predicting roles of carcinoembryonic antigen and its underlying mechanism in the progression of coronavirus disease 2019

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has induced a worldwide epidemiological event with a high infectivity and mortality. However, the predicting biomarkers and their potential mechanism in the progression of COVID-19 are not well known. Objective The aim of this study is to identify the candidate predictors of COVID-19 and investigate their underlying mechanism. Methods The retrospective study was conducted to identify the potential laboratory indicators with prognostic values of COVID-19 disease. Then, the prognostic nomogram was constructed to predict the overall survival of COVID-19 patients. Additionally, the scRNA-seq data of BALF and PBMCs from COVID-19 patients were downloaded to investigate the underlying mechanism of the most important prognostic indicators in lungs and peripherals, respectively. Results In total, 304 hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital were included in the retrospective study. CEA was the only laboratory indicator with significant difference in the univariate (P