1. Delayed bystander CD8 T cell activation, early immune pathology and persistent dysregulation characterise severe COVID-19
- Author
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Caroline Saunders, Jeremy K. Nicholson, Nathalie Kingston, Lorinda Turner, John Bradley, Ian Goodfellow, Erik J M Toonen, Anne Elmer, Michael D Morgan, Michael P. Weekes, Berthold Göttgens, Paul A. Lyons, Paul J. Lehner, Aloka DeSa, Oisin Huhn, Myra Hosmillo, Kelvin Hunter, Nicholas J Matheson, Prasanti Kotagiri, Christoph Hess, James Thaventhiran, Pehuen Pereyra Gerber, Laura Bergamaschi, Anna M. Petrunkina, Ravindra K. Gupta, Benjamin J. Dunmore, Gordon Dougan, Aimee Hanson, Mark R. Wills, Kenneth G. C. Smith, Hélène Ruffieux, Sylvia Richardson, Federica Mescia, Fernando Calero Nieto, Rainer Doffinger, Stephen Baker, Mark Toshner, and CambridgeInstituteofTherapeuticImmunologyandInfectiousDisease-NationalInstituteofHealthResearch(CITI)
- Subjects
Immune system ,business.industry ,Immunopathology ,Immunology ,medicine ,Bystander effect ,Inflammation ,Tumor necrosis factor alpha ,medicine.symptom ,Systemic inflammation ,business ,Asymptomatic ,Viral load - Abstract
SummaryIn a study of 207 SARS-CoV2-infected individuals with a range of severities followed over 12 weeks from symptom onset, we demonstrate that an early robust bystander CD8 T cell immune response, without systemic inflammation, is characteristic of asymptomatic or mild disease. Those presenting to hospital had delayed bystander responses and systemic inflammation already evident at around symptom onset. Such early evidence of inflammation suggests immunopathology may be inevitable in some individuals, or that preventative intervention might be needed before symptom onset. Viral load does not correlate with the development of this pathological response, but does with its subsequent severity. Immune recovery is complex, with profound persistent cellular abnormalities correlating with a change in the nature of the inflammatory response, where signatures characteristic of increased oxidative phosphorylation and reactive-oxygen species-associated inflammation replace those driven by TNF and IL-6. These late immunometabolic inflammatory changes and unresolved immune defects may have clinical implications.
- Published
- 2021