Convalescent COVID-19 Patients Without Comorbidities Display Similar Immunophenotypes Over Time Despite Divergent Disease Severities.
Chang-Feng Chu, Florian Sabath, Silvia Fibi-Smetana, Shan Sun, Rupert Öllinger, Elfriede Noeßner, Ying-Yin Chao, Linus Rinke, Elena Winheim, Roland Rad, Anne B Krug, Leila Taher, Christina E Zielinski
Author Information
Chang-Feng Chu: Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Florian Sabath: Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Silvia Fibi-Smetana: Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
Shan Sun: Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Rupert Öllinger: Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Elfriede Noeßner: Immunoanalytics-Tissue Control of Immunocytes, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Munich, Germany.
Ying-Yin Chao: Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Linus Rinke: Institute for Immunology, Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Elena Winheim: Institute for Immunology, Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Roland Rad: Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Anne B Krug: Institute for Immunology, Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Leila Taher: Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
Christina E Zielinski: Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
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 severely affected patients were detectable within a 2-week time window after infection.
