In this preprint, Wilk et al. used single-cell RNA sequencing to compare immune profiles in 7 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to 6 healthy controls. In CD14+ monocytes from patients, HLA class II expression as well as a pathway associated with DC–NK cell immune crosstalk were reduced, whereas a pathway associated with PD1–PDL1 interactions was increased. A cluster of highly proliferative T cells and NK cells was enriched, with immune checkpoint as well as interferon-stimulated genes uniquely upregulated in NK cells. Collectively, these results indicate that dysregulation of immune crosstalk is associated with severity of COVID-19. Further studies will need to investigate the contribution of these mechanisms to the reduced numbers and impaired functions of NK cells and T cells observed in patients with COVID-19.
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Wilk, A. J. et al. A single-cell atlas of the peripheral immune response to severe COVID-19. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.17.20069930 (2020)
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Salomé, B., Mahmood, Z. Modulation of immune crosstalk in COVID-19. Nat Rev Immunol 20, 406 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-0342-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-0342-1