J Autoimmun . Profiling of the immune repertoire in COVID-19 patients with mild, severe, convalescent, or retesting-positive status

[tetano]

J Autoimmun


. 2021 Jan 14;118:102596.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2021.102596. Online ahead of print.
Profiling of the immune repertoire in COVID-19 patients with mild, severe, convalescent, or retesting-positive status


Yonggang Zhou ¹ , Jinhe Zhang ² , Dongyao Wang ¹ , Dong Wang ² , Wuxiang Guan ³ , Jingkun Qin ² , Xiuxiu Xu ¹ , Jingwen Fang ⁴ , Binqing Fu ¹ , Xiaohu Zheng ² , Dongsheng Wang ⁵ , Hong Zhao ⁶ , Xianxiang Chen ⁷ , Zhigang Tian ² , Xiaoling Xu ⁵ , Guiqiang Wang ⁸ , Haiming Wei ⁹



Affiliations

• PMID: 33540371
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaut.2021.102596

Abstract

Forty-seven samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from four groups of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 patients (mild, severe, convalescent, retesting-positive) and healthy controls were applied to profile the immune repertoire of COVID-19 patients in acute infection or convalescence by transcriptome sequencing and immune-receptor repertoire (IRR) sequencing. Transcriptome analyses showed that genes within principal component group 1 (PC1) were associated with infection and disease severity whereas genes within PC2 were associated with recovery from COVID-19. A "dual-injury mechanism" of COVID-19 severity was related to an increased number of proinflammatory pathways and activated hypercoagulable pathways. A machine-learning model based on the genes associated with inflammatory and hypercoagulable pathways had the potential to be employed to monitor COVID-19 severity. Signature analyses of B-cell receptors (BCRs) and T-cell receptors (TCRs) revealed the dominant selection of longer V-J pairs (e.g., IGHV3-9-IGHJ6 and IGHV3-23-IGHJ6) and continuous tyrosine motifs in BCRs and lower diversity of TCRs. These findings provide potential predictors for COVID-19 outcomes, and new potential targets for COVID-19 treatment.

Keywords: BCR; COVID-19 predictor; Dual-injury mechanism; Immune repertoire; TCR.