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:We utilize single-cell sequencing (scSeq) of lymphocyte immune repertoires and transcriptomes to quantitatively profile the adaptive immune response in COVID-19 patients of varying age. Our scSeq analysis defines the adaptive immune repertoire and transcriptome in convalescent COVID-19 patients and shows important age-related differences implicated in immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
Project description:COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, can assume a highly variable disease course, ranging from asymptomatic infection, which constitutes the majority of cases, to severe respiratory failure. This implies a diverse host immune response to SARS-CoV-2. However, the immunological underpinnings underlying these divergent disease courses remain elusive. We therefore set out to longitudinally characterize immune signatures of convalescent COVID-19 patients stratified according to their disease severity. Our unique convalescent COVID-19 cohort consists of 74 patients not confounded by comorbidities. This is the first study of which we are aware that excludes immune abrogations associated with non-SARS-CoV-2 related risk factors of disease severity. Patients were followed up and analyzed longitudinally (2, 4 and 6 weeks after infection) by high-dimensional flow cytometric profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), in-depth serum analytics, and transcriptomics. Immune phenotypes were correlated to disease severity. Convalescence was overall associated with uniform immune signatures, but distinct immune signatures for mildly versus severely affected patients were detectable within a 2-week time window after infection.
Project description:Severe COVID-19 disease is associated with dysregulation of the myeloid compartment during acute infection. Survivors frequently experience long-lasting sequelae but little is known about the eventual persistence of this immune alteration. Herein, we evaluated Toll-like receptor-induced cytokine responses in a cohort of mild to critical patients during acute or convalescent phases (n=97). In the acute phase, we observed impaired cytokine production by monocytes in the most severe patients. This capacity was globally restored in convalescent patients. Yet, we observed increased responsiveness to TLR1/2 ligation in patients that recovered from severe disease, indicating that these cells display distinct functional properties at the different stages of the disease. We identified a specific transcriptomic and epigenomic state in monocytes from acute severe patients that can account for their functional refractoriness. The molecular profile of monocytes from recovering patients was distinct and characterized by increased chromatin accessibility at AP-1 and MAF loci. These results demonstrate that severe COVID-19 infection has a profound impact on the differentiation status and function of circulating monocytes both during the acute and the convalescent phases in a completely distinct manner. This could have important implications for our understanding of short and long-term COVID19-related morbidity.
Project description:Severe COVID-19 disease is associated with dysregulation of the myeloid compartment during acute infection. Survivors frequently experience long-lasting sequelae but little is known about the eventual persistence of this immune alteration. Herein, we evaluated Toll-like receptor-induced cytokine responses in a cohort of mild to critical patients during acute or convalescent phases (n=97). In the acute phase, we observed impaired cytokine production by monocytes in the most severe patients. This capacity was globally restored in convalescent patients. Yet, we observed increased responsiveness to TLR1/2 ligation in patients that recovered from severe disease, indicating that these cells display distinct functional properties at the different stages of the disease. We identified a specific transcriptomic and epigenomic state in monocytes from acute severe patients that can account for their functional refractoriness. The molecular profile of monocytes from recovering patients was distinct and characterized by increased chromatin accessibility at AP-1 and MAF loci. These results demonstrate that severe COVID-19 infection has a profound impact on the differentiation status and function of circulating monocytes both during the acute and the convalescent phases in a completely distinct manner. This could have important implications for our understanding of short and long-term COVID19-related morbidity.
Project description:Manuscript describes the daily dynamics of transcriptional responses in whole blood, from acute to convalescent phase, in severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients.
Project description:The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a widespread and severe impact on society, yet there have also been instances of remarkable recovery, even in critically ill patients. In this study, we used single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze the immune responses in recovered and deceased COVID-19 patients during moderate and critical stages. The study included three unvaccinated patients from each outcome category. Although expanded T cell receptor (TCR) clones were predominantly SARS-CoV-2-specific, they represented only a small fraction of the total repertoire in all patients. In contrast, while deceased patients exhibited monoclonal B cell receptor (BCR) expansions without COVID-19 specificity, survivors demonstrated diverse and specific BCR clones. These findings suggest that neither TCR diversity nor BCR monoclonal expansions are sufficient for viral clearance and subsequent recovery. Differential gene expression analysis revealed that protein biosynthetic processes were enriched in survivors, but that potentially damaging mitochondrial ATP metabolism was activated in the deceased. This study underscores that BCR repertoire diversity, but not TCR diversity, correlates with favorable outcomes in COVID-19.