Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17292-4
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The immune system of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 is severely impaired. Detailed investigation of T cells and cytokine production in patients affected by COVID-19 pneumonia are urgently required. Here we show that, compared with healthy controls, COVID-19 patients' T cell compartment displays several alterations involving naive, central memory, effector memory and terminally differentiated cells, as well as regulatory T cells and PD1(+)CD57(+) exhausted T cells. Significant alterations exist also in several lineage-specifying transcription factors and chemokine receptors. Terminally differentiated T cells from patients proliferate less than those from healthy controls, whereas their mitochondria functionality is similar in CD4(+) T cells from both groups. Patients display significant increases of proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory cytokines, including T helper type-1 and type-2 cytokines, chemokines and galectins; their lymphocytes produce more tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interferon-gamma, interleukin (IL)-2 and IL-17, with the last observation implying that blocking IL-17 could provide a novel therapeutic strategy for COVID-19. COVID-19 is a serious pandemic threat to public health, but insights on the pathophysiological and immunological conditions are only emerging. Here the authors use multi-color flow cytometry to characterize CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in peripheral blood from 39 COVID-19 patients in Italy to report altered T cell activation, function and polarization.
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