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Severe COVID-19 Is Marked by a Dysregulated Myeloid Cell Compartment.

Cell

Authors: Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, Nico Reusch, Daniela Paclik, Kevin Baßler, Stephan Schlickeiser, Bowen Zhang, Benjamin Krämer, Tobias Krammer, Sophia Brumhard, Lorenzo Bonaguro, Elena De Domenico, Daniel Wendisch, Martin Grasshoff, Theodore S Kapellos, Michael Beckstette, Tal Pecht, Adem Saglam, Oliver Dietrich, Henrik E Mei, Axel R Schulz, Claudia Conrad, Désirée Kunkel, Ehsan Vafadarnejad, Cheng-Jian Xu, Arik Horne, Miriam Herbert, Anna Drews, Charlotte Thibeault, Moritz Pfeiffer, Stefan Hippenstiel, Andreas Hocke, Holger Müller-Redetzky, Katrin-Moira Heim, Felix Machleidt, Alexander Uhrig, Laure Bosquillon de Jarcy, Linda Jürgens, Miriam Stegemann, Christoph R Glösenkamp, Hans-Dieter Volk, Christine Goffinet, Markus Landthaler, Emanuel Wyler, Philipp Georg, Maria Schneider, Chantip Dang-Heine, Nick Neuwinger, Kai Kappert, Rudolf Tauber, Victor Corman, Jan Raabe, Kim Melanie Kaiser, Michael To Vinh, Gereon Rieke, Christian Meisel, Thomas Ulas, Matthias Becker, Robert Geffers, Martin Witzenrath, Christian Drosten, Norbert Suttorp, Christof von Kalle, Florian Kurth, Kristian Händler, Joachim L Schultze, Anna C Aschenbrenner, Yang Li, Jacob Nattermann, Birgit Sawitzki, Antoine-Emmanuel Saliba, Leif Erik Sander

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a mild to moderate respiratory tract infection, however, a subset of patients progress to severe disease and respiratory failure. The mechanism of protective immunity in mild forms and the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 associated with increased neutrophil counts and dysregulated immune responses remain unclear. In a dual-center, two-cohort study, we combined single-cell RNA-sequencing and single-cell proteomics of whole-blood and peripheral-blood mononuclear cells to determine changes in immune cell composition and activation in mild versus severe COVID-19 (242 samples from 109 individuals) over time. HLA-DRCD11c inflammatory monocytes with an interferon-stimulated gene signature were elevated in mild COVID-19. Severe COVID-19 was marked by occurrence of neutrophil precursors, as evidence of emergency myelopoiesis, dysfunctional mature neutrophils, and HLA-DR monocytes. Our study provides detailed insights into the systemic immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and reveals profound alterations in the myeloid cell compartment associated with severe COVID-19.

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID: 32810438

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