Project description:COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple-organ failure, but little is known about its pathophysiology. Here, we generated single-cell atlases of 23 lung, 16 kidney, 15 liver and 18 heart COVID-19 autopsy donor tissue samples, and spatial atlases of 14 lung donors. Integrated computational analysis uncovered substantial remodeling in the lung epithelial, immune and stromal compartments, with evidence of multiple paths of failed tissue regeneration, including defective alveolar type 2 differentiation and expansion of myofibroblasts and putative TP63+ intrapulmonary basal-like progenitor cells. Viral RNAs were enriched in mononuclear phagocytic and endothelial lung cells which induced specific host programs. Spatial analysis in lung distinguished inflammatory host responses in lung regions with and without viral RNA. Analysis of the other tissue atlases showed transcriptional alterations in multiple cell types in COVID-19 donor heart tissue, and mapped cell types and genes implicated with disease severity based on COVID-19 GWAS. Our foundational dataset elucidates the biological impact of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection across the body a key step towards new treatments.
Project description:The on-going COVID-19 pandemic requires a deeper understanding of the long-term antibody responses that persist following SARS-CoV-2 infection. To that end, we determined epitope-specific IgG antibody responses in COVID-19 convalescent sera collected at 5 months post-diagnosis and compared that to sera from naïve individuals. Each serum sample was reacted with a high-density peptide microarray representing the complete proteome of SARS-CoV-2 as 15 mer peptides with 11 amino acid overlap and homologs of spike glycoprotein, nucleoprotein, membrane protein, and envelope small membrane protein from related human coronaviruses. Binding signatures were compared between COVID-19 convalescent patients and naïve individuals using the web service tool EPIphany.
Project description:Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) represent an emerging global crisis. However, quantifiable risk-factors for PASC and their biological associations are poorly resolved. We executed a deep multi-omic, longitudinal investigation of 309 COVID-19 patients from initial diagnosis to convalescence (2-3 months later), integrated with clinical data, and patient-reported symptoms. We resolved four PASC-anticipating risk factors at the time of initial COVID-19 diagnosis: type 2 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia, Epstein-Barr virus viremia, and specific autoantibodies. In patients with gastrointestinal PASC, SARS-CoV-2-specific and CMV-specific CD8+ T cells exhibited unique dynamics during recovery from COVID-19. Analysis of symptom-associated immunological signatures revealed coordinated immunity polarization into four endotypes exhibiting divergent acute severity and PASC. We find that immunological associations between PASC factors diminish over time leading to distinct convalescent immune states. Detectability of most PASC factors at COVID-19 diagnosis emphasizes the importance of early disease measurements for understanding emergent chronic conditions and suggests PASC treatment strategies.
Project description:The causative organism, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), exhibits a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations in disease-ridden patients. Differences in the severity of COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic infections and mild cases to the severe form, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiorgan failure with poor survival. MiRNAs can regulate various cellular processes, including proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation, by binding to the 3′UTR of target mRNAs inducing their degradation, thus serving a fundamental role in post-transcriptional repression. Alterations of miRNA levels in the blood have been described in multiple inflammatory and infectious diseases, including SARS-related coronaviruses. We used microarrays to delineate the miRNAs and snoRNAs signature in the peripheral blood of severe COVID-19 cases (n=9), as compared to mild (n=10) and asymptomatic (n=10) patients, and identified differentially expressed transcripts in severe versus asymptomatic, and others in severe versus mild COVID-19 cases. A cohort of 29 male age-matched patients were selected. All patients were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 using TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, Massachusetts), or Cobas SARS-CoV-2 Test (Roche Diagnostics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland), with a CT value < 30. Additional criterion for selection was age between 35 and 75 years. Participants were grouped into severe, mild and asymptomatic. Classifying severe cases was based on requirement of high-flow oxygen support and ICU admission (n=9). Whereas mild patients were identified based on symptoms and positive radiographic findings with pulmonary involvement (n=10). Patients with no clinical presentation were labelled as asymptomatic cases (n=10).
Project description:The mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is strongly correlated with pulmonary vascular pathology accompanied by SARS-CoV-2 infection-triggered immune dysregulation and aberrant activation of platelets. We combined histological analyses using field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses of the lungs from autopsy samples and single-cell RNA sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to investigate the pathogenesis of vasculitis and immunothrombosis in COVID-19. We found that SARS-CoV-2 accumulated in the pulmonary vessels, causing exudative vasculitis accompanied by the emergence of thrombospondin-1 (THBS-1)-expressing non-canonical monocytes and the formation of Myosin light chain 9 (Myl9)-containing microthrombi in the lung of COVID-19 patients with fatal disease. The amount of plasma Myl9 in COVID-19 was correlated with the clinical severity and measuring plasma Myl9 together with other markers allowed us to predict the severity of the disease more accurately. This study provides detailed insight into the pathogenesis of vasculitis and immunothrombosis, which may lead to optimal medical treatment for COVID-19.
Project description:Red blood cells (RBC) depleted whole blood from COVID-19 patients and controls was harvested and processed in order to performed 10X single cell RNA-seq. For COVID-19 patients 2 samples 10 days a part were analyzed.
Project description:Analysis of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, with different kind of symptoms, by human rectal swabs collection and 16S sequencing approach.
Project description:The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused over 1 million deaths globally, mostly due to acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, or direct complications resulting in multiple-organ failures. Little is known about the host tissue immune and cellular responses associated with COVID-19 infection, symptoms, and lethality. To address this, we collected tissues from 11 organs during the clinical autopsy of 17 individuals who succumbed to COVID-19, resulting in a tissue bank of approximately 420 specimens. We generated comprehensive cellular maps capturing COVID-19 biology related to patients’ demise through single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-Seq of lung, kidney, liver and heart tissues, and further contextualized our findings through spatial RNA profiling of distinct lung regions. We developed a computational framework that incorporates removal of ambient RNA and automated cell type annotation to facilitate comparison with other healthy and diseased tissue atlases. In the lung, we uncovered significantly altered transcriptional programs within the epithelial, immune and stromal compartments and cell intrinsic changes in multiple cell types relative to lung tissue from healthy controls. We observed evidence of alveolar type 2 (AT2) differentiation replacing depleted alveolar type 1 (AT1) lung epithelial cells, as previously seen in fibrosis, and a concomitant increase in myofibroblasts reflective of defective tissue repair. Viral reads were enriched in lung mononuclear phagocytic cells and endothelial cells, and these cells expressed distinct viral RNA host response transcriptional programs. We corroborated the compositional and transcriptional changes in lung tissue through spatial analysis of RNA profiles in situ and distinguished unique tissue host responses between regions with and without viral RNA, and in COVID-19 donor tissues relative to healthy lung. Finally, we analyzed genetic regions implicated in COVID-19 GWAS with transcriptomic data to implicate specific cell types and genes associated with disease severity. Overall, our COVID-19 cell atlas is a foundational dataset to better understand the biological impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection across the human body and empowers the identification of new therapeutic interventions and prevention strategies.
Project description:In this prospective observational cohort study, we found transcriptional evidence that persistent immune dysfunction was associated with 28-day mortality in both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 septic patients. COVID-19 patients had an early antiviral response but became indistinguishable on a gene expression level from non-COVID-19 sepsis patients a week later. Early treatment of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 sepsis ICU patients should focus on pathogen control, but both patient groups also require novel immunomodulatory treatments, particularly later during ICU hospitalization, independent of admission diagnosis. Some T1 samples were uploaded in GSE185263 and were not re-uploaded in this series.
Project description:Infection with SARS-CoV-2 has highly variable clinical manifestations, ranging from asymptomatic infection through to life-threatening disease. Host whole blood transcriptomics can offer unique insights into the biological processes underpinning infection and disease, as well as severity. We performed whole blood RNA-Sequencing of individuals with varying degrees of COVID-19 severity. We used differential expression analysis and pathway enrichment analysis to explore how the blood transcriptome differs between individuals with mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19, performing pairwise comparisons between groups.