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Single-cell transcriptomes of peripheral blood cells indicate and elucidate severity of COVID-19
- Source :
- Science China. Life Sciences, Science China Life Sciences
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The blood and immune system of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected patients are dysfunctional, and numerous studies have been conducted to resolve their characteristics and pathogenic mechanisms. Nevertheless, the variations of immune responses along with disease severity have not been comprehensively documented. Here, we profiled the single-cell transcriptomes of 96,313 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from 12 COVID-19 patients (including four moderate, four severe and four critical cases) and three healthy donors. We showed that proliferative CD8 effector T cells with declined immune functions and cytotoxicity accumulated in the critical stage. By contrast, the quantity of natural killer (NK) cells was significantly reduced, while they exhibited enhanced immune activities. Notably, a gradually attenuated responseto COVID-19 along with disease severity was observed in monocytes, in terms of cellular composition, transcriptional discrepancy and transcription factor regulatory network. Furthermore, we identified immune cell-type dependent cytokine signatures distinguishing the severity of COVID-19 patients. In addition, cell interactions between CD8 effector T/NK cells and monocytes mediated by inflammatory cytokines were enhanced in moderate and severe stages, but weakened in critical cases. Collectively, our work uncovers the cellular and molecular players underlying the disordered and heterogeneous immune responses associated with COVID-19 severity, which could provide valuable insights for the treatment of critical COVID-19 patients. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s11427-020-1880-y and is accessible for authorized users.
- Subjects :
- CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes
0301 basic medicine
medicine.medical_treatment
Cell
severity
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes
Biology
Severity of Illness Index
Peripheral blood mononuclear cell
immune response
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Proinflammatory cytokine
Transcriptome
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Immune system
medicine
Humans
General Environmental Science
single-cell RNA-seq
SARS-CoV-2
Effector
COVID-19
Killer Cells, Natural
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Cytokine
Case-Control Studies
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
PBMCs
Immunology
Leukocytes, Mononuclear
Single-Cell Analysis
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
CD8
Research Paper
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18691889 and 16747305
- Volume :
- 64
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science China Life Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a463656628db45aa9ce53ef25b1530cc