Postmortem high-dimensional immune profiling of severe COVID-19 patients reveals distinct patterns of immunosuppression and immunoactivation

Haibo Wu, Peiqi He, Yong Ren, Shiqi Xiao, Wei Wang, Zhenbang Liu, Heng Li, Zhe Wang, Dingyu Zhang, Jun Cai, Xiangdong Zhou, Dongpo Jiang, Xiaochun Fei, Lei Zhao, Heng Zhang, Zhenhua Liu, Rong Chen, Weiqing Li, Chaofu Wang, Shuyang Zhang, Jiwei Qin, Björn Nashan and Cheng Sun ()
Additional contact information
Haibo Wu: University of Science and Technology of China
Peiqi He: University of Science and Technology of China
Yong Ren: the First Hospital Affiliated to Army Medical University
Shiqi Xiao: the First Hospital Affiliated to Army Medical University
Wei Wang: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhenbang Liu: University of Science and Technology of China
Heng Li: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhe Wang: University of Science and Technology of China
Dingyu Zhang: Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital
Jun Cai: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Xiangdong Zhou: Third Military Medical University Daping Hospital
Dongpo Jiang: Third Military Medical University Daping Hospital
Xiaochun Fei: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Lei Zhao: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Heng Zhang: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Zhenhua Liu: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Rong Chen: Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital
Weiqing Li: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Key Laboratory of Emergency and Critical Care Research, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University
Chaofu Wang: Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine
Shuyang Zhang: Peking Union Medical College Hospital
Jiwei Qin: University of Science and Technology of China
Björn Nashan: University of Science and Technology of China
Cheng Sun: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract A complete diagnostic autopsy is the gold-standard to gain insight into Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pathogenesis. To delineate the in situ immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, here we perform comprehensive high-dimensional transcriptional and spatial immune profiling in 22 COVID-19 decedents from Wuhan, China. We find TIM-3-mediated and PD-1-mediated immunosuppression as a hallmark of severe COVID-19, particularly in men, with PD-1+ cells being proximal rather than distal to TIM-3+ cells. Concurrently, lymphocytes are distal, while activated myeloid cells are proximal, to SARS-CoV-2 viral antigens, consistent with prevalent SARS-CoV-2 infection of myeloid cells in multiple organs. Finally, viral load positively correlates with specific immunosuppression and dendritic cell markers. In summary, our data show that SARS-CoV-2 viral infection induces lymphocyte suppression yet myeloid activation in severe COVID-19, so these two cell types likely have distinct functions in severe COVID-19 disease progression, and should be targeted differently for therapy.

Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27723-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27723-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27723-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().