Transcriptome Analysis of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Reveals Distinct Immune Response in Asymptomatic and Re-Detectable Positive COVID-19 Patients.
Front Immunol
; 12: 716075, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1359192
ABSTRACT
The existence of asymptomatic and re-detectable positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients presents the disease control challenges of COVID-19. Most studies on immune responses in COVID-19 have focused on moderately or severely symptomatic patients; however, little is known about the immune response in asymptomatic and re-detectable positive (RP) patients. Here we performed a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptomic profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 48 COVID-19 patients which included 8 asymptomatic, 13 symptomatic, 15 recovered and 12 RP patients. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified six co-expression modules, of which the turquoise module was positively correlated with the asymptomatic, symptomatic, and recovered COVID-19 patients. The red module positively correlated with symptomatic patients only and the blue and brown modules positively correlated with the RP patients. The analysis by single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) revealed a lower level of IFN response and complement activation in the asymptomatic patients compared with the symptomatic, indicating a weaker immune response of the PBMCs in the asymptomatic patients. In addition, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) analysis showed the enrichment of TNFα/NF-κB and influenza infection in the RP patients compared with the recovered patients, indicating a hyper-inflammatory immune response in the PBMC of RP patients. Thus our findings could extend our understanding of host immune response during the progression of COVID-19 disease and assist clinical management and the immunotherapy development for COVID-19.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Leukocytes, Mononuclear
/
Carrier State
/
Asymptomatic Diseases
/
Transcriptome
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Immunol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Fimmu.2021.716075
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS