Phenotypical and functional alteration of unconventional T cells in severe COVID-19 patients

  1. Youenn Jouan
  2. Antoine Guillon
  3. Loïc Gonzalez
  4. Yonatan Perez
  5. Chloé Boisseau
  6. Stephan Ehrmann
  7. Marion Ferreira
  8. Thomas Daix
  9. Robin Jeannet
  10. Bruno François
  11. Pierre-François Dequin
  12. Mustapha Si-Tahar
  13. Thomas Baranek
  14. Christophe Paget

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Abstract

COVID-19 includes lung infection ranging from mild pneumonia to life-threatening acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Dysregulated host immune response in the lung is a key feature in ARDS pathophysiology. However, cellular actors involved in COVID-19–driven ARDS are poorly understood. Here, in blood and airways of severe COVID-19 patients, we serially analyzed unconventional T cells, a heterogeneous class of T lymphocytes (MAIT, γδT, and iNKT cells) with potent antimicrobial and regulatory functions. Circulating unconventional T cells of COVID-19 patients presented with a profound and persistent phenotypic alteration. In the airways, highly activated unconventional T cells were detected, suggesting a potential contribution in the regulation of local inflammation. Finally, expression of the CD69 activation marker on blood iNKT and MAIT cells of COVID-19 patients on admission was predictive of clinical course and disease severity. Thus, COVID-19 patients present with an altered unconventional T cell biology, and further investigations will be required to precisely assess their functions during SARS–CoV-2–driven ARDS.

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  1. Version published to 10.1084/jem.20200872
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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.03.20089300: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: All patients or their next of kin gave consent for participation in the study.
    IRB: The study was approved by the ethic committee “Comité de Protection de Personnes Ile-de-France 8” under the agreement number 2017-A01841-52, in accordance with the national laws.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analysis: All statistical analysis was performed by using GraphPad Prism software.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    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: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT03379207RecruitingInnate Immune Response During Community Acquired Pneumonia

    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.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.03.20089300v1 on medRxiv