1. Academic Validation
  2. Identification of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune alterations in acutely ill patients

Identification of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune alterations in acutely ill patients

  • J Clin Invest. 2021 Apr 15;131(8):e145853. doi: 10.1172/JCI145853.
Rose-Marie Rébillard 1 2 Marc Charabati 1 2 Camille Grasmuck 1 2 Abdelali Filali-Mouhim 2 Olivier Tastet 2 Nathalie Brassard 2 Audrey Daigneault 2 Lyne Bourbonnière 2 Sai Priya Anand 2 3 Renaud Balthazard 1 2 Guillaume Beaudoin-Bussières 2 4 Romain Gasser 2 4 Mehdi Benlarbi 2 4 Ana Carmena Moratalla 1 2 Yves Carpentier Solorio 1 2 Marianne Boutin 2 4 Negar Farzam-Kia 1 2 Jade Descôteaux-Dinelle 2 4 Antoine Philippe Fournier 1 2 Elizabeth Gowing 1 2 Annemarie Laumaea 2 4 Hélène Jamann 1 2 Boaz Lahav 2 Guillaume Goyette 2 Florent Lemaître 1 2 Victoria Hannah Mamane 1 2 Jérémie Prévost 2 4 Jonathan Richard 2 4 Karine Thai 1 2 Jean-François Cailhier 2 5 Nicolas Chomont 2 4 Andrés Finzi 2 3 4 Michaël Chassé 2 5 Madeleine Durand 2 5 Nathalie Arbour 1 2 Daniel E Kaufmann 2 5 Alexandre Prat 1 2 Catherine Larochelle 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Neuroscience, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 2 Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 4 Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology, and.
  • 5 Department of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Abstract

Dysregulated immune profiles have been described in symptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Whether the reported immune alterations are specific to SARS-CoV-2 Infection or also triggered by other acute illnesses remains unclear. We performed flow cytometry analysis on fresh peripheral blood from a consecutive cohort of (a) patients hospitalized with acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection, (b) patients of comparable age and sex hospitalized for another acute disease (SARS-CoV-2 negative), and (c) healthy controls. Using both data-driven and hypothesis-driven analyses, we found several dysregulations in immune cell subsets (e.g., decreased proportion of T cells) that were similarly associated with acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection and non-COVID-19-related acute illnesses. In contrast, we identified specific differences in myeloid and lymphocyte subsets that were associated with SARS-CoV-2 status (e.g., elevated proportion of ICAM-1+ mature/activated neutrophils, ALCAM+ monocytes, and CD38+CD8+ T cells). A subset of SARS-CoV-2-specific immune alterations correlated with disease severity, disease outcome at 30 days, and mortality. Our data provide an understanding of the immune dysregulation specifically associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection among acute care hospitalized patients. Our study lays the foundation for the development of specific biomarkers to stratify SARS-CoV-2-positive patients at risk of unfavorable outcomes and to uncover candidate molecules to investigate from a therapeutic perspective.

Keywords

Adaptive immunity; COVID-19; Innate immunity.

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