Impact of adaptive natural killer cells, KLRC2 genotype and cytomegalovirus reactivation on late mortality in patients with severe COVID‐19 lung disease

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Abstract

Objective

SARS‐CoV‐2 infection results in severe lung disease in up to 50% of hospitalised patients. The aetiopathogenesis in a subset of such patients, who continue to have progressive pulmonary disease following virus clearance, remains unexplored.

Methods

We investigated the role of NKG2C + /NKG2A adaptive natural killer (ANK) cells, KLRC2 genotype and cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in 22 such patients.

Results

The median duration of virus positivity was 23 days, and the median duration of hospitalisation was 48 days. The overall survival at 60 days in this group was 50%. Older age and comorbidities impacted survival negatively. CMV viraemia was documented in 11 patients, with a survival of 25% vs 80% in those without viraemia with viral load correlating with mortality. Both NK and T cells were markedly depressed in all patients at day 15. However, only persistently low ANK cells at 30 days along with an inversely high NKG2C /NKG2A + inhibitory NK cells significantly correlated with high CMV viraemia and mortality, irrespective of KLRC2 genotype. However, day 30 ANK cells were significantly lower in the KLRC2 deletion group. The release of IFN‐γ and perforin was severely compromised in all patients at day +15, with significant improvement in the survivors at day +30, but not in those with adverse outcome.

Conclusion

Patients with progressive lung disease even after negative SARS‐CoV‐2 status, with persistently reduced and functionally compromised ANK cells, are more likely to have CMV reactivation and an adverse outcome, independent of KLRC2 genotype.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.11.21264805: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


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