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. 2020 Sep;21(9):1107-1118.
doi: 10.1038/s41590-020-0762-x. Epub 2020 Aug 12.

Single-cell landscape of immunological responses in patients with COVID-19

Ji-Yuan Zhang #  1 , Xiang-Ming Wang #  2 , Xudong Xing #  3 , Zhe Xu #  1 , Chao Zhang  1 , Jin-Wen Song  1 , Xing Fan  1 , Peng Xia  1 , Jun-Liang Fu  1 , Si-Yu Wang  1 , Ruo-Nan Xu  1 , Xiao-Peng Dai  1 , Lei Shi  1 , Lei Huang  1 , Tian-Jun Jiang  1 , Ming Shi  1 , Yuxia Zhang  4 , Alimuddin Zumla  5   6 , Markus Maeurer  7   8 , Fan Bai  9 , Fu-Sheng Wang  10
Affiliations

Single-cell landscape of immunological responses in patients with COVID-19

Ji-Yuan Zhang et al. Nat Immunol. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

In coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, the relationship between disease severity and the host immune response is not fully understood. Here we performed single-cell RNA sequencing in peripheral blood samples of 5 healthy donors and 13 patients with COVID-19, including moderate, severe and convalescent cases. Through determining the transcriptional profiles of immune cells, coupled with assembled T cell receptor and B cell receptor sequences, we analyzed the functional properties of immune cells. Most cell types in patients with COVID-19 showed a strong interferon-α response and an overall acute inflammatory response. Moreover, intensive expansion of highly cytotoxic effector T cell subsets, such as CD4+ effector-GNLY (granulysin), CD8+ effector-GNLY and NKT CD160, was associated with convalescence in moderate patients. In severe patients, the immune landscape featured a deranged interferon response, profound immune exhaustion with skewed T cell receptor repertoire and broad T cell expansion. These findings illustrate the dynamic nature of immune responses during disease progression.

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