Journal Article

Relationship of SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4 response to COVID-19 severity and impact of HIV-1 and tuberculosis coinfection

Daroowala, Remy, Wasserman, Sean, Wilkinson, Robert J., Abrahams, Fatima, Goliath, Rene T., du Bruyn, Elsa, Stek, Cari, Allwood, Brian W., Sette, Alessandro, Arlehamn, Cecilia S. Lindestam, Riou, Catherine, Hsiao, Nei-Yuan, Wilkinson, Katalin A., Said-Hartley, Qonita

2021

نظرة عامة

T cells are involved in control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but limited knowledge is available on the relationship between antigen-specific T cell response and disease severity. Here, we used flow cytometry to assess the magnitude, function, and phenotype of SARS coronavirus 2-specific (SARS-CoV-2-specific) CD4+ T cells in 95 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 38 of them being HIV-1 and/or tuberculosis (TB) coinfected, and 38 non-COVID-19 patients. We showed that SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cell attributes, rather than magnitude, were associated with disease severity, with severe disease being characterized by poor polyfunctional potential, reduced proliferation capacity, and enhanced HLA-DR expression. Moreover, HIV-1 and TB coinfection skewed the SARS-CoV-2 T cell response. HIV-1-mediated CD4+ T cell depletion associated with suboptimal T cell and humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, and a decrease in the polyfunctional capacity of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ T cells was observed in COVID-19 patients with active TB. Our results also revealed that COVID-19 patients displayed reduced frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific CD4+ T cells, with possible implications for TB disease progression. These results corroborate the important role of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in COVID-19 pathogenesis and support the concept of altered T cell functions in patients with severe disease.

• الناشر: American Society for Clinical Investigation
• موضوع: Adult / Aged / CD4 lymphocytes / CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology / CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - pathology / Coinfection - immunology / Coinfection - pathology / Comorbidity / COVID-19 - immunology / COVID-19 - pathology / Development and progression / Female / Health aspects / HIV (Viruses) / HIV-1 - immunology / Humans / Immune response / Male / Middle Aged / Mycobacterium tuberculosis - immunology / SARS-CoV-2 - immunology / Severity of Illness Index / Tuberculosis / Tuberculosis - immunology / Tuberculosis - pathology