[Science] Systems biological assessment of immunity to mild versus severe COVID-19 infection in humans

18/08/2020

Science, 11 August 2020

Prabhu S. Arunachalam, Florian Wimmers, Chris Ka Pun Mok, Ranawaka A. P. M. Perera, Madeleine Scott, Thomas Hagan, Natalia Sigal, Yupeng Feng, Laurel Bristow, Owen Tak-Yin Tsang, Dhananjay Wagh, John Coller, Kathryn L. Pellegrini, Dmitri Kazmin, Ghina Alaaeddine, Wai Shing Leung, Jacky Man Chun Chan, Thomas Shiu Hong Chik, Chris Yau Chung Choi, Christopher Huerta, Michele Paine McCullough, Huibin Lv, Evan Anderson, Srilatha Edupuganti, Amit A. Upadhyay, Steve E. Bosinger, Holden Terry Maecker, Purvesh Khatri, Nadine Rouphael, Malik Peiris, Bali Pulendran

Highlights:

Analyzed immune responses in 76 COVID-19 patients and 69 healthy individuals from Hong Kong and Atlanta.
In PBMCs of COVID-19 patients, there was reduced expression of HLA-DR and pro-inflammatory cytokines by myeloid cells, and impaired mTOR-signaling and IFN-α production by plasmacytoid DCs.
In contrast, there were enhanced plasma levels of inflammatory mediators, including EN-RAGE, TNFSF14, and oncostatin-M, which correlated with disease severity and increased bacterial products in human plasma. Single