In:
Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers Media SA, Vol. 12 ( 2021-9-9)
Abstract:
The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has turned into a worldwide public health crisis and caused more than 100,000,000 severe cases. Progressive lymphopenia, especially in T cells, was a prominent clinical feature of severe COVID-19. Activated HLA-DR + CD38 + CD8 + T cells were enriched over a prolonged period from the lymphopenia patients who died from Ebola and influenza infection and in severe patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, the CD38 + HLA-DR + CD8 + T population was reported to play contradictory roles in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods A total of 42 COVID-19 patients, including 32 mild or moderate and 10 severe or critical cases, who received care at Beijing Ditan Hospital were recruited into this retrospective study. Blood samples were first collected within 3 days of the hospital admission and once every 3–7 days during hospitalization. The longitudinal flow cytometric data were examined during hospitalization. Moreover, we evaluated serum levels of 45 cytokines/chemokines/growth factors and 14 soluble checkpoints using Luminex multiplex assay longitudinally. Results We revealed that the HLA-DR + CD38 + CD8 + T population was heterogeneous, and could be divided into two subsets with distinct characteristics: HLA-DR + CD38 dim and HLA-DR + CD38 hi . We observed a persistent accumulation of HLA-DR + CD38hi CD8 + T cells in severe COVID-19 patients. These HLA-DR + CD38 hi CD8 + T cells were in a state of overactivation and consequent dysregulation manifested by expression of multiple inhibitory and stimulatory checkpoints, higher apoptotic sensitivity, impaired killing potential, and more exhausted transcriptional regulation compared to HLA-DR + CD38 dim CD8 + T cells. Moreover, the clinical and laboratory data supported that only HLA-DR + CD38 hi CD8 + T cells were associated with systemic inflammation, tissue injury, and immune disorders of severe COVID-19 patients. Conclusions Our findings indicated that HLA-DR + CD38 hi CD8 + T cells were correlated with disease severity of COVID-19 rather than HLA-DR + CD38 dim population.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1664-3224
DOI:
10.3389/fimmu.2021.735125
DOI:
10.3389/fimmu.2021.735125.s001
Language:
Unknown
Publisher:
Frontiers Media SA
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2606827-8
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