COVID-19 and graft-versus-host disease: a tale of two diseases (and why age matters).
Lab Invest
; 101(3): 274-279, 2021 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-968368
ABSTRACT
Disorders involving injury to tissue stem cells that ensure normal tissue homeostasis and repair have potential to show unusually devastating clinical consequences. Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is one condition where relatively few cytotoxic immune cells target skin stem cells to produce significant morbidity and mortality. By analogy, SARS-CoV-2 is a vector that initially homes to pulmonary stem cells that preferentially express the ACE2 receptor, thus potentially incurring similarly robust pathological consequences. In older individuals, stem cell number and/or function become depleted due to pathways independent of disease-related injury to these subpopulations. Accordingly, pathologic targeting of stem cells in conditions like aGVHD and COVID-19 infection where these cells are already deficient due to the aging process may have dire consequences in elderly individuals. A hypothesis is herein advanced that, as with aGVHD, lung stem cell targeting is a potential co-factor in explaining age-related severity of COVID-19 infection.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
Graft vs Host Disease
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Lab Invest
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S41374-020-00520-2
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