ABSTRACT
Two typical features of uncontrolled inflammation, cytokine storm and lymphopenia, are associated with the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), demonstrating that both innate and adaptive immune responses are involved in the development of this disease. Recent studies have explored the contribution of innate immune cells to the pathogenesis of the infection. However, the impact of adaptive immunity on this disease remains unknown. In order to clarify the role of adaptive immune response in COVID-19, we characterized the phenotypes of lymphocytes in PBMCs from patients at different disease stages using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology. Dynamics of the effector cell levels in lymphocytes revealed a distinct feature of adaptive immunity in severely affected patients, the coincidence of impaired cellular and enhanced humoral immune responses, suggesting that dysregulated adaptive immune responses advanced severe COVID-19. Excessive activation and exhaustion were observed in CD8 T effector cells, which might contribute to the lymphopenia. Interestingly, expression of Prothymosin alpha (PTMA), the proprotein of Tα1, was significantly increased in a group of CD8 T memory stem cells, but not in excessively activated T cells. We further showed that Tα1 significantly promoted the proliferation of activated T cells in vitro and relieved the lymphopenia in COVID-19 patients. Our data suggest that protection of T cells from excessive activation might be critical for the prevention of severe COVID-19.