TY - JOUR
T1 - Covid-19 specific immune markers revealed by single cell phenotypic profiling
AU - Sansico, Francesca
AU - Miroballo, Mattia
AU - Bianco, Daniele Salvatore
AU - Tamiro, Francesco
AU - Colucci, Mattia
AU - De Santis, Elisabetta
AU - Rossi, Giovanni
AU - Rosati, Jessica
AU - Di Mauro, Lazzaro
AU - Miscio, Giuseppe
AU - Mazza, Tommaso
AU - Vescovi, Angelo Luigi
AU - Mazzoccoli, Gianluigi
AU - Giambra, Vincenzo
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, grant number GR-2016-02361287.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - COVID-19 is a viral infection, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and characterized by a complex inflammatory process and clinical immunophe-notypes. Nowadays, several alterations of immune response within the respiratory tracts as well as at the level of the peripheral blood have been well documented. Nonetheless, their effects on COVID-19-related cell heterogeneity and disease progression are less defined. Here, we performed a single-cell RNA sequencing of about 400 transcripts relevant to immune cell function including surface markers, in mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the peripheral blood of 50 subjects, infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the diagnosis and 27 healthy blood donors as control. We found that patients with COVID-19 exhibited an increase in COVID-specific surface markers in different subsets of immune cell composition. Interestingly, the expression of cell receptors, such as IFNGR1 and CXCR4, was reduced in response to the viral infection and associated with the inhibition of the related signaling pathways and immune functions. These results highlight novel immunoreceptors, selectively expressed in COVID-19 patients, which affect the immune functionality and are correlated with clinical outcomes.
AB - COVID-19 is a viral infection, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and characterized by a complex inflammatory process and clinical immunophe-notypes. Nowadays, several alterations of immune response within the respiratory tracts as well as at the level of the peripheral blood have been well documented. Nonetheless, their effects on COVID-19-related cell heterogeneity and disease progression are less defined. Here, we performed a single-cell RNA sequencing of about 400 transcripts relevant to immune cell function including surface markers, in mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the peripheral blood of 50 subjects, infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the diagnosis and 27 healthy blood donors as control. We found that patients with COVID-19 exhibited an increase in COVID-specific surface markers in different subsets of immune cell composition. Interestingly, the expression of cell receptors, such as IFNGR1 and CXCR4, was reduced in response to the viral infection and associated with the inhibition of the related signaling pathways and immune functions. These results highlight novel immunoreceptors, selectively expressed in COVID-19 patients, which affect the immune functionality and are correlated with clinical outcomes.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Flow cytometry
KW - Immune cells
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - Single-cell RNA sequencing
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U2 - 10.3390/biomedicines9121794
DO - 10.3390/biomedicines9121794
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120554639
VL - 9
JO - Biomedicines
JF - Biomedicines
SN - 2227-9059
IS - 12
M1 - 1794
ER -