Broad phenotypic alterations and potential dysfunction of lymphocytes in individuals clinically recovered from COVID-19

• 作者: Jingyi Yang Maohua Zhong Ejuan Zhang Ke Hong Qingyu Yang Dihan Zhou Jianbo Xia Yao-Qing Chen Mingbo Sun Bali Zhao Jie Xiang Ying Liu Yang Han Mengxin Xu Xi Zhou Chaolin Huang You Shang Huimin Yan
• 来源期刊: 分子细胞生物学报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（3）
• 所属期刊栏目: Articles
• 页码范围: 197-209
• 页数: 13页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/jmcb/mjab014

摘要

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-y+),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-y+),Th2(IL-4+),Th17(IL-17A+),and circulating follicular helper T(CXCR5+PD-1+)cells.Accordingly,the proportion of isotype-switched memory B cells(lgM-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-y,granzyme B and T-bet,the correlation between T-bet and IFN-y 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 4-11 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.