ABSTRACT
Although millions of patients have clinically recovered from COVID-19, little is known about the immune status of lymphocytes in these individuals. In this study, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of a clinically recovered (CR) cohort were comparatively analyzed with those of an age- and sex-matched healthy donor cohort. We found that CD8+ T cells in the CR cohort had higher numbers of effector T cells and effector memory T cells but lower Tc1 (IFN-γ+), Tc2 (IL-4+), and Tc17 (IL-17A+) cell frequencies. The CD4+ T cells of the CR cohort were decreased in frequency, especially the central memory T cell subset. Moreover, CD4+ T cells in the CR cohort showed lower programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) expression and had lower frequencies of Th1 (IFN-γ+), Th2 (IL-4+), Th17 (IL-17A+), and circulating follicular helper T (CXCR5+PD-1+) cells. Accordingly, the proportion of isotype-switched memory B cells (IgM-CD20hi) among B cells in the CR cohort showed a significantly lower proportion, although the level of the activation marker CD71 was elevated. For CD3-HLA-DR- lymphocytes in the CR cohort, in addition to lower levels of IFN-γ, granzyme B and T-bet, the correlation between T-bet and IFN-γ was not observed. Additionally, by taking into account the number of days after discharge, all the phenotypes associated with reduced function did not show a tendency toward recovery within 4â11 weeks. The remarkable phenotypic alterations in lymphocytes in the CR cohort suggest that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection profoundly affects lymphocytes and potentially results in dysfunction even after clinical recovery.
Subject(s)
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/virology , COVID-19/blood , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/virology , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Adult , Aged , CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/immunology , CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/pathology , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/pathology , COVID-19/virology , Cell Lineage/genetics , Cell Lineage/immunology , Female , Gene Expression Regulation/immunology , Granzymes/genetics , Humans , Interferon-gamma/genetics , Leukocytes, Mononuclear/pathology , Male , Middle Aged , T-Box Domain Proteins/genetics , Th1 Cells/immunology , Th1 Cells/virology , Th17 Cells/immunology , Th17 Cells/virology , Th2 Cells/immunology , Th2 Cells/virologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is posing a huge threat to human health worldwide. We aim to investigate the immune status of CD8+ T and NK cells in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: The count and immune status of lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry in 32 COVID-19 patients and 18 healthy individuals. RESULTS: As the disease progression in COVID-19 patients, CD8+ T and NK cells were significantly decreased in absolute number but highly activated. After patients' condition improved, the count and immune status of CD8+ T and NK cells restored to some extent. GrA+CD8+ T and perforin+ NK cells had good sensitivity and specificity for assisting diagnosis of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: As the disease progression, the declined lymphocytes in COVID-19 patients might lead to compensatory activation of CD8+ T and NK cells. GrA+CD8+ T and perforin+ NK cells might be used as meaningful indicators for assisting diagnosis of COVID-19.